A 53-year-old man was sentenced Friday to more than 235 years to life in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting two boys he tutored from when they were 8 and 9 years old until they were 13 and 14 in the Anaheim area.
Zeta “Jimmy” Dhanapanth, who acted as his own attorney during his trial, was convicted May 8 of a dozen felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14 and a count of possession of child pornography.
Jurors also found true sentencing enhancements for multiple victims and substantial sexual conduct.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin sentenced Dhanapanth to 235 years and eight months to life in prison. The defendant had 2,676 days credit behind bars.
Days before his sentencing, the defendant asked for money to pay his court-appointed investigator to continue seeking information for his case but was denied.
Dhanapanth got rid of his court-appointed attorney just as the trial was about to start. He took the stand in his defense and attempted to portray his accusers as liars with what he characterized as inconsistencies with their various statements to investigators.
Deputy District Attorney Sarah Rahman said in a sentencing brief that the defendant would give Legos gifts to one of the boys and “distracted” the victim by showing him pornographic videos on his phone at “every tutoring session, initially twice a week and then four times a week.”
Dhanapanth would play a game “if you be nice to me,” meaning allow the defendant to sexually assault the boy then he would “buy him whatever he wanted,” Rahman said. The assaults would happen at a community center and inside a van the defendant borrowed from a roommate, Rahman said.
The defendant “promised” to buy the second victim a bike if he followed him into the van, the prosecutor said.
Dhanapanth set up a surveillance camera at the community center to alert him if someone came close to see what was happening, Rahman said.
One of the boys eventually confided in someone who lived with his family and she told the victim’s mother, who came forward to authorities, Rahman said.
During a search of the defendant’s home authorities found “numerous computers,” which contained 16 videos of child pornography and more than 70 sexually explicit stories about children and adults, Rahman said.
The defendant also searched the web for sites about the legalization of pedophilia, Rahman said.
Investigators also found Legos constructed in sexual positions and sex toys in his home, Rahman said.
When Dhanapanth testified on his behalf he “admitted to being interested in children who have sex with other children,” Rahman noted.
The child pornography was only for “educational purposes,” he testified, Rahman said.
“He testified that in his opinion the child pornography videos are not harmful to anyone because it is human nature for children to be curious of sex and `play with each other,’ ” according to Rahman.
Dhanapanth “inflicted serious emotional damage to both of the victims,” Rahman said.
He “showed no remorse when he accused the victims of lying despite admitting to possession of child pornography, having an interest in children having sex, believing little children having sex is not harmful, and to believing that (the victims) were good looking and very cute,” Rahman said.
One of the victims had to go to a hospital to be treated for his mental health after he was cross examined by the defendant in court, Rahman said.
Dhanapanth taught in an after-school program at Anaheim Indepencia Center from 2012 through 2016. He volunteered for the School on Wheels program, which would bring tutors to the homes of needy students, Rahman said.
Dhanapanth said he noticed during jury selection that some jurors “didn’t understand me because of my accent,” so he asked to read his opening statement as it was placed on a projector for jurors to read along with him.
Dhanapanth said the allegations are “not supported by any witness … or evidence.”
The defendant, referring to himself in the third person as Jimmy, said he was “very excited” to get a partial scholarship to Baylor University in 1997 and recounted his emigrating from Thailand.
“So when Jimmy arrived he never spoke English before,” he said. “He did not come from a wealthy family.”
He got a job as a server in the campus cafeteria and would daily get recorded lectures from his professors so he could hear the lessons again and better learn English.
When he started tutoring, he said, most of his clients were from “family referrals” of satisfied customers.
Dhanapanth said he sympathized with one of the accusers because of his difficult emigration from Mexico to the United States. The defendant said the boy was “abandoned” by his parents and cared for by his grandparents.
“He was not able to speak any human language. He was mute,” the defendant said.
The defendant said he helped the boy learn to read and speak from graphic novels and audio books.
“Jimmy was very proud” of the boy, he said.
When the boy’s father pulled him out of tutoring, the defendant said he was “stunned.”
The defendant read the statements from his accusers to police in separate interviews to try to point out what he considered were “inconsistencies.” The statements included explicit and graphic allegations of sexual abuse.
“We all know when people make up a story they try to change it because they can’t remember what they said,” Dhanapanth said. “They want to make the story better.”