Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
The upcoming episode of Death by Fame will air on ID on Monday, March 4, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. It will revolve around the Austin Powers actor Joseph Son, who was convicted of the torture of a California woman in September 2011.
According to the California Department of Corrections, Joseph Son is currently serving a life sentence at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. He was convicted of the torture of a 19-year-old woman who was gang raped on December 24, 1990. He was charged with the crime in 2008 after his DNA samples were entered into the database because of an unrelated case of vandalism. The DNA matched that of the perpetrator in the rape case after nearly two decades, according to the Orange County District Attorney.
Joseph Son and his accomplice, Santiago Gaitan, stopped a 19-year-old woman to ask her for directions. She had been walking her dog at that time, and the men abducted her to hold her in their car. The woman was reportedly beaten and raped her. They also threatened to kill her multiple times. When she begged for her life, the men allegedly left her outside, naked and blindfolded with her pants.
Orange County District Attorney reported that although the woman reported the crime immediately, the case went cold until Son’s DNA was a match in 2008. That year, in May, he pleaded guilty to felony vandalism and was asked to serve 60 days in the Orange County Jail. Following this, he was placed on probation. After failing to clarify his residence during the probation, he was asked to provide a DNA sample.
Did Joseph Son kill his cellmate in prison?
Joseph Son was then convicted of torture and was sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, Santiago Gaitan pleaded guilty to several sexual crimes. CBS News reported that he was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison.
On October 10, 2011, Joseph Son’s cellmate, Michael Graham, was found dead in the Wasco State Prison. Authorities found that Son had beaten Graham to death. He was then charged with assault by a life prisoner with force causing death. However, the court only found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison but was already serving a life sentence from his previous term.
At the time of his death, Graham was serving a two-year term after he failed to be registered as a sex offender. Bakersfield reported that Graham was on suicide watch after troubled behaviors were reported around 30 days before the death.
On the other hand, Joseph Son was convicted of manslaughter after a two-week trial in 2017, six years after the killing of Graham. If convicted of the initial charges of murder, he would have been given another life sentence without a chance of parole.
The upcoming episode of Death by Fame will be aired on ID on Monday, March 4, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. It will dig deeper into how the actor, who played a henchman in the first Austin Powers movie, was caught and convicted of a decades-old crime.
