Falsely Imprisoned Man Convicted in New Case : Crime: Found guilty of sexual assault, Benny Gene Powell faces a sentence of up to 52 years. He won $3.5 million after wrongly serving 17 years in prison.

Benny Gene Powell, whose 17 years of wrongful imprisonment won him $3.5 million last year, was convicted this week of sexually assaulting a UCLA student and faces returning to prison for up to 52 years.

Powell, 47, was convicted by a Riverside County Superior Court jury in connection with the May, 1993, assault of a 35-year-old German student in a motel room in Beaumont, near Palm Springs.

The assault came 13 months after Powell and his close friend, Clarence Chance, were released from prison after each had served 17 years of a life prison term for the 1973 murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David Andrews. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office conceded in 1992 that the pair had been wrongfully convicted, based partly on false testimony.

In February, 1993, the city of Los Angeles awarded each man $3.5 million as compensation for their 17 years behind bars. Two months later, Powell contemplated the metamorphosis from ex-con to millionaire as he sipped a cocktail: “I feel like, how am I going to get adjusted to this?”

A month later, the UCLA student told authorities that she and Powell drove to Beaumont, where he raped and sodomized her. Powell was arrested two months later in his hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., where he had purchased a two-story home.

Apparently drawing on his false-imprisonment award, Powell posted $1-million bail after his arrest and was released late last year. While out of jail, he allegedly raped and sexually assaulted a Vallejo, Calif., woman, Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Rash said. Trial on those charges was scheduled to begin after the first trial ended, Rash said.

Powell faced 27 felony counts in the Beaumont assault. After a four-week trial, the jury convicted him Monday of four counts of oral copulation, one count of attempted sodomy and two counts of penetration with a foreign object.

The jury was deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of convicting him on one rape count and six lesser counts and acquitted him on 13 other counts.

During the trial, Powell’s attorney portrayed the victim as a gold digger hoping to get some of Powell’s riches.

Rash characterized Powell as “a very dangerous criminal who can . . . be charismatic and charming and can easily lure people into trusting him, then turn very violent, very vicious.”

Reached by telephone in Scottsdale, Powell’s mother, Elmira Keaton, said she was “as sick as I can be” about his conviction. “They’re putting him back in prison like they said they were going to because they said he didn’t deserve to be out. It’s a conspiracy to get him back in there.”

Powell will be sentenced Dec. 19 by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Edward Webster. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 52 years.

Times staff writer Shawn Hubler contributed to this article.