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2nd jury to decide if Garden Grove man attempted to rape, then killed 68-year-old neighbor

June 20, 2023

A Garden Grove man is once again on trial for the attempted rape and brutal, fatal beating of an elderly woman who was out on an early morning walk in their neighborhood, as the defendant’s attorney argued that he is an innocent bystander who found himself caught up in suspicious circumstances.

Nearly a year after his first trial ended with a deadlocked jury, Michael Aon Varela, now 36, was back in an Orange County Superior courtroom in Santa Ana on Tuesday morning facing a special circumstances murder while committing a rape charge for the fatal attack on 68-year-old Dzung Thi Nguyen on Sept. 9, 2017.

Deputy District Attorney Casey Cunningham told jurors that a drunken Varela committed a “brutal, horrific and senseless murder” after returning home following a night out drinking. Nguyen lived with her husband in the same neighborhood as Varela — near the 22 Freeway and Beach Boulevard — and she had a habit of waking up early to go on long walks and collect recyclables.

“He beat her and he brutalized her, ripped her clothes off and when she didn’t submit he continued to beat her until she went unconscious, became unresponsive and ultimately died several days later,” the prosecutor said.

Varela’s father opened the door to his home shortly after 5 a.m. to find a shirtless, blood-covered Varela with a nearly-naked Nguyen on his front lawn. Varela told his father that he had arrived home to find a half-naked and injured Nguyen in the street, Cunningham said. When the father continued asking questions about what happened, an “agitated and defensive” Varela asked “What, you think I did this?”

Nguyen’s DNA was found on Varela’s penis, the prosecutor said, and his DNA was found on her clothing. Varela had scratches on various parts of his body, the prosecutor added, including portions of an arm, his knee and above an eye. While surveillance cameras from nearby homes didn’t capture the attack on Nguyen, they did show the headlights of Varela’s car apparently parking at 4:38 p.m. and recyclables believed to have been collected by Nguyen in the street at 5:09 a.m., leading police to believe the assault occurred within that time frame.

Varela’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Arlene Speiser, denied that Varela was the one who attacked Nguyen. The defense attorney described Varela as “the guy people knew as the person who would always jump in and help others in need.”

“Michael Varela, my client, came home to anyone’s worst nightmare,” Speiser told jurors. “An innocent person trying to help another human being that placed him in suspicious circumstances.”

The defense attorney acknowledged that Varela was drunk, having been out the previous night into the early morning hours at dive bars in Stanton and Fullerton. Varela had tripped and fallen facedown on pavement while leaving the second bar at closing time, the defense attorney said, and then he vomited on himself in his car before eventually driving home.

Varela arrived home still in a haze, Speiser said, and saw the unresponsive body of Nguyen across the street. He clumsily carried her toward his home, knowing that his father was home to help and that they could call 911, the defense attorney added.

“He has nothing to hide,” Speiser said. “He brings her from the darkness of the street to the light of the front yard.”

Both Varela’s father and his father’s girlfriend looked Varela in the eyes and didn’t believe he was responsible for attacking Nguyen, Speiser said. Neither saw any indication that his knuckles were damaged or swollen, the defense attorney added.

Other people were out in the neighborhood during the early morning hours that day, Speiser said, including a man from the Czech Republic who was visiting from overseas at the time, returned days later and hasn’t been back in the United States since, as well as an unidentified man seen walking in the neighborhood shortly before police arrived.

If convicted as charged, Varela faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Orange County Register

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2nd jury to decide if Garden Grove man attempted to rape, then killed 68-year-old neighbor

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