A 60-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 155 years to life in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl he lived with for about two years in Garden Grove.
Dung Tan Luu was the boyfriend of the victim’s mother, prosecutors said in a trial brief. The girl, who was reluctant to tell her mother what was happening because the defendant helped pay the rent, finally told her mother what was happening when the parent found a book of sexually explicit drawings the victim made to try to understand what was happening to her, prosecutors said.
In a sentencing brief, Deputy District Attorney Thomas Farnell said Luu “sexually abused the victim repeatedly starting in 2022 until 2024. As the victim stated, it happened with such regularity, she could not keep count.”
Luu’s attorney, Mia Yamamoto, argued against the maximum punishment of 155 years to life in prison.
Yamamoto said her client was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and grew up to be a professional driver who emigrated to the U.S. in 2013, where he lived in Las Vegas for three years before moving to Westminster.
The trucker is divorced and has four children, Yamamoto said.
The defense attorney argued for a 30 to life prison sentence for her client, who has been behind bars since Aug. 9, 2024.
Luu went to lengths to hide the abuse, prosecutors said. He covered indoor Ring cameras when attacking her, prosecutors said.
The victim and her mother stayed at the defendant’s home briefly when the parent was “very ill,” prosecutors. The abuse started in February 2022, prosecutors said, and it “escalated” when they moved to a new apartment, prosecutors said.
Luu would attack her about once a week while her mother was at work from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m., prosecutors said. At times Luu would “drag” her by the wrist into his bedroom to sexually assault her, prosecutors said.
The abuse stopped when the defendant’s adult daughter and son moved in with them in June 2024, “reducing his opportunities to isolate her,” prosecutors said.
Luu was convicted of 10 felony counts of sexually assaulting the girl from 2022 through 2024.
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