Suspect admits to having sex with Debbie Dorian in police interview, recording shows

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The man facing trial in the murder of a Fresno State grad nearly 30 years ago shocked the courtroom.

Accused murderer and rapist Nickey Stane has only said a few words in court over the past week.

On Friday, his voice took center stage as he admitted to having sex with Debbie Dorian while another man was present in 1996.

"It was a little bit on the rougher side. He was kinda like directing it and stuff. And then after that, that's the last time I kinda seen of her," said Stane in an interview with Visalia police in 2019.

Prosecutors say Stane murdered and raped the 22-year-old woman, but he wouldn't admit to that.

Instead, he walked investigators through what he called his life as a sex addict.

"I've seen hookers and prostitutes, and all that stuff has kinda like got me into a situation where I'm in today. I know I've done a couple of things here in Visalia that I shouldn't have done," Stane was heard saying in the recording.

That revealing statement and dozens of others came during the interview.

It was just hours after police officers arrested Stane, saying he was responsible for a string of South Valley sexual assaults nearly 20 years earlier.

Police say there were eight assaults between 1999 and 2002, and they share some similar patterns.

Victims describe their assaulter as a white man, often with a hoodie and black gun in the morning or late at night.

Within 20 minutes of Stane sitting down with police, a partial admission was made.

"'How many times do you believe it occurred?" an officer asked.

"Two that I remember. One in an alley and one on a street," Stane responded.

The victim in one of those assaults was just 19 years old at the time.

She was on her way home from working at a Visalia ice cream shop when she said a man grabbed the handlebars of her bike and ordered her to a side street.

She reported the crime that night, and police collected DNA from the sidewalk.

That DNA matched a sample police collected from Dorian's Northeast Fresno apartment three years earlier in 1996.

She was found raped, bound, and gagged on the floor of her apartment.

Stane has pleaded not guilty to all 11 felony charges against him.

In the interview with Visalia police, Stane said he knew he would probably go to jail and said quote, "I'm not going to try to fight it."

He's due back in court next week as prosecutors work to convince the judge there's enough evidence to go to trial.

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