The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is warning the public that a rapist who continually fails to register as a sex offender was released into the community after a jury determined that he did not meet the criteria of a sexually violent predator.
Dennis Craig McDaniel, 55, was released Aug. 31, and has indicated that he plans to move to Fort Worth, Texas, to a residential treatment facility. McDaniel is no longer on parole but will be required to register as a sex offender within five days of release and be listed on the Megan’s Law website.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is warning the public that a rapist who continually fails to register as a sex offender was released into the community after a jury determined that he did not meet the criteria of a sexually violent predator.
Dennis Craig McDaniel, 55, was released Aug. 31, and has indicated that he plans to move to Fort Worth, Texas, to a residential treatment facility. McDaniel is no longer on parole but will be required to register as a sex offender within five days of release and be listed on the Megan’s Law website.
Deputy District Attorney Peter Finnerty tried the case on behalf of the OCDA and following the jury’s decision argued a motion for a new trial. The motion was denied by the Honorable David Hoffer and the respondent was ordered released.
The OCDA believes McDaniel poses a danger to the community based on his numerous sexual crimes of a predatory nature, repeated failure to register as a sex offender, and multiple parole violations indicating that he in incapable of following the law.
Johnson denied parole for five more years
The Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections denied parole for five years for an inmate who murdered an elderly employee of an Anaheim motel he frequented.
Robert Charles Johnson, 50, is currently being held at Kern Valley State Prison, Delano. Johnson was found guilty by a jury of one felony count of murder and was sentenced Oct. 29, 1982, to 16 years to life in state prison.
Deputy District Attorney Brett Brian appeared, as expected, on behalf of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to oppose parole.
Johnson will not be eligible for parole again until 2017.
Man gets life for cold case
A man was sentenced today to life in state prison without the possibility of parole for raping and murdering a 42-year-old woman behind the counter of her Anaheim market after being linked to the crime through DNA. Louis Roger Acosta Jr., 41, was found guilty on May 21 in a court trial by the Honorable William Froeberg of one felony count of special circumstances murder in the commission of rape.
In the early morning hours of June 4, 1998, Acosta entered the D&D Market in Anaheim, where 42-year-old store owner Dung Duong was known to sleep behind the counter when the market was closed. Acosta repeatedly beat Duong in the head with a blunt object and then raped the bleeding victim on the small makeshift mattress behind the counter.
After raping Duong, Acosta fled the scene. The victim bled to death as a result of the injuries to her head and was discovered several hours later, at approximately 11:30 a.m., after a customer saw Duong in a pool of blood through the store window.
The case went unsolved until 2004, when Acosta was linked to the crime through DNA while serving time in Washington for robbery.
The Anaheim Police Department investigated this case. Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.