Truck driver sentenced to 8 years for 2022 rape of Turlock motel worker
Three years after a Turlock motel employee was lured into a guest’s room and raped while on the job, the man convicted of the attack was sentenced Friday to eight years in state prison.
Osman Mukhammadiyev, 32, of Massachusetts was found guilty by a Stanislaus County jury in June of forcible rape and false imprisonment. On Friday, Judge Carrie Stephens imposed the maximum term allowed under state law, citing the violent nature of the assault and the defendant’s lack of remorse.
Mukhammadiyev, wearing an orange and gray jail jumpsuit, showed little emotion as the sentence was read. He declined to speak when offered the chance by the judge.
The 2022 assault
The victim, identified in court as Jane Doe, was working the front desk at the Days Inn on Tully Road on May 6, 2022, when Mukhammadiyev called to report his television and internet were not working.
Believing she was helping with a routine problem, she went to the room. Prosecutors said Mukhammadiyev shut the door behind her, forced her onto the bed, pulled down her clothing and raped her.
The woman managed to fight him off and escape to the lobby, where she locked the door and called 911. “He pulled down my pants and just started rubbing up on me,” she told dispatchers, according to a transcript filed in court.
Police officers responding to the scene found Mukhammadiyev trying to re-enter the locked lobby. He was arrested immediately.
DNA evidence and trial
In police interviews, Mukhammadiyev repeatedly denied any sexual contact. But forensic testing by the state Department of Justice found the victim’s DNA on his body.
The case wound slowly through the courts, with multiple delays over DNA evidence and discovery requests from the defense. Jury selection began in June 2024, and after several days of testimony — including the victim recounting the attack on the witness stand — jurors returned guilty verdicts.
In addition to convicting him of rape and false imprisonment, jurors found aggravating factors that increased the possible punishment, including that the crime was premeditated, violent and committed against a particularly vulnerable victim.
Sentencing hearing
Deputy District Attorney Vita Palazuelos read the victim’s statement aloud Friday, describing the “domino effect” the assault had on her life. The victim wrote that she lost her job, struggled financially, went into debt and continued therapy for years after the attack.
“This case is every woman’s nightmare,” Palazuelos said in an interview. “She doesn’t know this man. She was just doing her job, and he lures her into his room and rapes her. I can’t imagine, aside from being murdered, a more horrific thing to happen to anyone.”
Defense attorney Emeka Ralph Nwobi had urged the court to show leniency, arguing his client had expressed remorse and had no prior criminal record. “We are a nation of laws, but also of compassion,” he said.
But Stephens said the evidence indicated “the defendant has shown no remorse whatsoever.” She called him “a danger to society.”
Mukhammadiyev was also ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender and serve 10 years of parole supervision after his release.
Moving forward
Mukhammadiyev has remained in custody since his arrest in 2022 and will receive credit for time served.
For the victim, the sentence marked the end of a long and painful legal process. “She was incredibly strong,” Palazuelos said. “She came forward, she testified, and today justice was finally done.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM.
