Alleged serial sexual predator enters plea in ’96 rape, killing of Fresno State student
Accused killer and sexual predator Nickey Stane pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he raped and murdered Fresno State student Debbie Dorian in 1996 and assaulted several women in Visalia.
Wearing a yellow jumpsuit reserved for high-risk inmates, Stane appeared in Judge Jon Kapetan’s courtroom. The 52-year-old Stane faces 12 felony counts, including murder, rape, and sexual battery by restraint.
If convicted, he could face could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty, said Deborah Miller, senior deputy district attorney for Fresno County.
A pre-preliminary hearing was set for March 19. Defense attorney Jane Boulger said she will need the time to pour over more than 60,000 pieces of information and evidence collected in the case.
Dorian’s death shocked the community in the summer of 1996. Detectives allege the person who killed Dorian entered her northeast Fresno apartment, where he bound, gagged and raped her. Dorian, a Fresno State economics student, was found dead inside the apartment by her father Peter Dorian on Aug. 22.
Despite efforts by detectives, the killer eluded them.
Three years after Dorian’s killing, Visalia police believe Stane began sexually preying on women in Visalia from 1999 to 2002. Detectives said Stane would approach his victims from behind, use a gun to force them to a secluded place and then fondle their breasts, force them to orally copulate him — or he would masturbate in front of them.
Like Dorian’s case, police were stumped until advances in technology, including DNA analysis, helped investigators zero in on Stane. DNA found in Dorian’s apartment was a match to one of the Visalia cases involving Stane.
In early October, Stane was arrested at his job — a fast food restaurant at the Visalia Mall where he worked as a manager.
The district attorneys for Fresno and Tulure counties agreed to combine the cases and have Stane tried in Fresno County.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Alleged serial sexual predator enters plea in ’96 rape, killing of Fresno State student."
