A City Heights medical student was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for drugging, raping and killing Dane Williams, a San Diego convention-goer from Orange County in January 2008.
Philong Huynh, 41, heard his sentence, which had an added 10-year term for a separate offense, read inside a downtown San Diego Superior Court at about 10:30 a.m.
Williams, 23, of Huntington Beach, was last reported seen with friends in the Gaslamp District in January 2008 while in town for the 2008 Action Sports Retailers Convention.
Three days later, his body was discovered in a Landis Street alley, within blocks of Huynh’s home.
In June, Huynh was found guilty of first-degree murder while in commission of oral copulation and while in commission of sodomy.
Huynh drugged an intoxicated Williams to have sex with him.
"You are an evil person in every sense of the word," said Jim Williams, Dane's father. "You robbed a mother and daughter of their son ... In prison, your cowardly acts will place you at the bottom of the inmate food chain."
Local
Valen Williams, Dane's mother, said she considered not speaking Friday because she doesn't consider Huynh "worth speaking to," but she changed her mind, saying she aches for her son every day.
"I still expect to see him walk through our front door," she said, "and I swear, sometimes I can still hear him say 'I love you' as I used to every single day. His love of life was infectious. Ironically, he would have helped you if you needed it.
"You are a predator, and in my mind, that is the worst offense. Dane is not coming back. You made sure of it."
Ten years were added for a prior offense in which Huynh drugged and sexually assaulted a Navy Corpsman.
Judge Robert O'Neill said Huynh is rated a high risk for sexually re-offending if ever released from prison.
