Austin Powers Actor Gets Life in Prison in Horrific Christmas Rape-Torture Case

Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno meted out the life term after hearing from the woman he was convicted of torturing on Dec. 24, 1990, as she was out walking her dog.

She gave a victim impact statement to the court that asked for the harshest punishment possible, saying the crime not only left her with post-traumatic stress but forever destroyed the spirit of Christmas.

"My twenties were stripped from my life as I relearned how to walk, see, hear and cope with the outside world again," testified the woman who wished to remain anonymous. "Joseph Son not only cost me my job at my salon but also my college savings...not to mention the impact it's made on celebrating Christmas year after year."

Son and another man, Santiago Gaitan, ambushed the woman in Huntington Beach, Calif., after she left a friend's place where she was looking at Christmas lights. They raped her repeatedly at gunpoint, sodomized her and forced her to give them oral sex.

According to prosecutors, Son also threatened to kill her before the two let her go "as a Christmas gift" and the victim ran, naked and with her panties tied around her eyes, to a nearby home, where the homeowner called for help.

By the time police arrived, the men had escaped and the case went cold—that is, until Son was busted on an outstanding warrant in early 2008 for felony vandalism. In May of that year, he was sentenced to 60 days in jail and as part of his plea, had to provide a DNA sample, which turned out to match DNA evidence taken from the 1990 crime scene.

Statute of limitations laws prevented the D.A. from trying the former thesp on rape charges, but the torture count to which he was found guilty allowed the judge latitude to impose a stiff sentence.

As for Son's cohort, Gaitan pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping charges last January and received 17 years and four months in state prison.

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