San Diego

A young man who sexually assaulted two college students in a bizarre ruse was sentenced Friday in Superior Court to 31 years in state prison.

David Miller, 24, of Southeast San Diego, was convicted in a jury trial Sept. 13 of two counts of kidnaping, two counts of forcible oral copulation, two charges of penetration with a foreign object, and sexual battery upon two 18-year-old women.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dave Lattuca urged the judge to impose a maximum 40-year sentence.

Miller phoned the women in their dorm rooms at San Diego State University and UC San Diego in October and November, 1989, and told them he was connected to organized crime. He said their families or their roommates would be killed unless they met with him.

The victims complied and were sexually assaulted after Miller drove them on separate occasions to isolated locations.

“They were very gullible, very naive,” said Lattuca, who said Miller was “very good” over the phone but was bluffing the entire time.

Lattuca said Miller somehow learned the first name of one woman’s roommate and another name of a family member of the other victim and threatened to harm those individuals unless the women met with him.

The women were not at the sentencing Friday, but their families attended.

Also testifying in the trial was a woman who said Miller raped her in 1984 when she was an 18-year-old freshman in San Diego by using a similar scheme, but she chose not to seek prosecution.

Judge Bernard Revak also imposed a $500 fine.

Before his arrest a year ago, Miller was employed as a worker in a fast-food restaurant.