Self-admitted sex addict will stand trial on murder and rape charges in Fresno County
Nicky Duane Stane, the 56-year-old man charged with a string of sexual assaults in Visalia and the murder of Fresno State student Debbie Dorian, will be put on trial, a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled Monday.
Judge Kimberly Gaab found there was enough evidence presented for prosecutors to proceed with their case against Stane, who is represented by Jane Boulger.
Stane is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty if convicted of the 11 felonies he is charged with.
A decision on whether Stane will face the death penalty has not been made, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Deborah Miller.
Miller and Senior Deputy District Attorney Kaitlin Drake oversaw the week-long hearing that revealed some of Stane’s most shocking secrets.
Stane was arrested in 2019 after DNA evidence tied him to four sexual assaults in Visalia from 1999 to 2002 and for the 1996 rape and murder of Dorian.
The 22-year-old Dorian was found inside her second-floor apartment by her father, whom she was supposed to meet for a trip to Sacramento. When she didn’t show, he went to her home where he found her lifeless body on her bed. Her mouth, nose, ankles and wrists were bound with heavy duty tape. The medical examiner said she died from asphyxiation.
Connecting Stane to Dorian involved detectives sifting through Stane’s trash to find an item they could collect DNA from. Ultimately, they found a razor and pulled a DNA sample.
Forensics and DNA experts compared the sample to a swab taken from Stane’s cheek and a DNA sample from Dorian’s body collected in 1996. They all pointed to the same person: Stane.
In a lengthy 2019 interview with Visalia detectives, Stane spoke in detail about his career as a manager of several fast-food restaurants, his time as an Uber driver in Visalia, as an Airbnb host and as a regular on the swing scene in the area.
Although he denied having anything to do with Dorian’s killing, he admitted to detectives that he’s had a life-long addiction to sex.
He said his second wife introduced him to swinging and he matter-of-factly told detectives he’s had sex with hundreds of woman. He added that he has at least 400 video tapes of his encounters with 100 different women.
Stane also revealed his penchant for hiring prostitutes for sex.
“I pretty much have been dealing with this my entire life,” he told detectives.
When asked about the sexual assaults in Visalia, Stane could only remember two of the four incidences. The others, he alleges, he blocked out of his memory.
One of the women who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Stane testified during the preliminary hearing. She recalled the night she was riding her bike home from her job at an ice cream shop when a stranger confronted her with a handgun.
He threatened to killer her if she did not comply. He took her to a dark area where he groped her and masturbated, she testified.
Stane is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 4 in Dept. 33 to be arraigned. He is being held at the Fresno County Jail on a no-bail hold.
