By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 48-year-old man has been given a 15-year prison term for sexually battering three female clients at Royal Nails Salon in Stillwater where he was employed as a contract worker until he was fired on July 15, 2020.
While proclaiming his innocence at a sentencing hearing last week, Nam Huu Nguyen told Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler that he would not appeal his conviction but instead wanted to be taken to prison as soon as possible so that he could serve his period of incarceration and then be deported to Vietnam.
A Payne County jury composed of seven men and five women had deliberated for 47 minutes on Feb. 9 before convicting him and recommending two 10-year prison terms for Nguyen’s attacks on two victims, which the judge ordered be served concurrently but consecutively to the jury’s recommended five-year prison term for an attack on a third victim.
The judge told Nguyen he must provide a DNA sample, serve five years post-imprisonment supervision by the Department of Corrections probation and parole division, and register as a sex offender on his release. The judge added, “If you are not deported on release from incarceration, you must appear within six months to make financial arrangements,” to pay court costs.
At the March 15 sentencing hearing, one of the three victims walked to the podium with a cane and read her extremely emotional impact statement in open court.
“On July 15 of 2020, my life was happy and full of promise. Nam Nguyen changed all of that… I pressed charges against this coward. Two other women were also strong and pressed charges. I stand here today. I stand up for all the women — making sure he goes to prison.
“Behind all the strength, there is so much pain, so much trauma that has changed me forever. I suffer from severe night terrors. I’m unable to be intimate. I can’t be touched without having flashbacks that are so terrible. These changes in my life have affected my loved one, to see me cry all the time.”
Looking directly at the defendant, she told him, “I will be at each parole hearing making sure you stay in prison the entire time. Remember I put you here and I’m going to keep you here.”
The three-count sexual battery case against Nguyen, who was convicted of attacking the women at the nail salon in a back room used for waxing without camera surveillance, was investigated by Stillwater Police Detective Mary Kellison and prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Debra Vincent and Erica Garuccio. Nguyen was represented by court-appointed defense attorney Royce Hobbs.
Nguyen had been sought for months before being arrested in New York City on Nov. 5, 2020, and transported to the Payne County Jail where he was ordered held on $75,000 bail pending his trial that ended in a quick verdict.
