By Bay City News
A state inmate was handed an additional term of 25 years to life for sexually assaulting a prison nurse, prosecutors said Friday.
Tyrone Owens, 41, was walking in a yard at Salinas Valley State Prison on March 23, 2023, when he approached a licensed vocational nurse asking for “help,” prosecutors said.
When she told how to get help, Owens told her he needed “sexual help,” ran after her, grabbed her and tried to put his hand down her pants, prosecutors said.
The nurse eventually broke free from Owens, and correctional officers came to her assistance.
Owens was sentenced as a third “strike” offender under the California Three Strikes Law that increases prison time for repeat felons, the district attorney’s office said in a news release.
At the time of the incident, Owens was serving a 17-year prison sentence for what prosecutors called “similar conduct.”
The additional term won’t begin until Owens has served his previous term, which began in 2019, prosecutors said.