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In a gang-rape trial that transfixed much of Southern California, an Orange County jury Wednesday convicted the teenage son of a wealthy former assistant sheriff and two friends of sexually assaulting an intoxicated 16-year-old girl as they videotaped the incident.
The videotape and sordid details of teen sex in Corona del Mar, a tony Newport Beach enclave, drew national attention to the July 2002 crime, which first played out last summer, when a jury deadlocked.
"The message is that there will not be open season on young women," said Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas after the verdict was rendered.
Gregory Haidl, 19, Kyle Nachreiner, 20, and Keith Spann, 20, were convicted of sexual assaults using a variety of objects. Jurors, however, did not hand down guilty verdicts on rape charges.
As the verdicts were read, the three defendants and their relatives gasped, wept and shook their heads. After the hourlong hearing, Gail Haidl, the mother of one defendant, needed to be supported in a courthouse elevator and could be heard wailing in anguish after the doors closed.
"Justice prevailed finally," said Sheldon Lodmer, a civil attorney who represents the victim.
The guilty verdicts come nine months after another jury deadlocked on whether the three teens were guilty in the attack, which occurred at the home of businessman Donald Haidl, a former Orange County assistant sheriff and father of defendant Gregory Haidl.
The case gained notoriety because of the lurid videotape -- shown to the jury but not the public -- and aggressive efforts by defense attorneys to paint the victim as a would-be porn star who pretended to be unconscious in the video for dramatic effect.
Haidl faces up to 18 years in prison, Nachreiner 14 years and Spann 16 years. They also will be required to register with authorities as sex offenders. Sentencing is set for May 20.
Had each young man been convicted on all nine felony counts, each could have faced 23 years in prison.
The defendants and their accuser, identified during the trial as Jane Doe, lived in Rancho Cucamonga at the time. Haidl has been in jail since November. Nachreiner and Spann, who had been free on bail, were led out of the courtroom with their hands cuffed...