By PAUL ANDERSON

More than two years after he was convicted and 14 years since he was charged, a former Laguna Beach rug merchant was sentenced on Monday, Feb. 2, to 34 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting two women in his store.

Saeid Maralan, 67, of Laguna Niguel was convicted of two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object and single counts each of rape and attempted oral copulation, all felonies.

When the Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Maralan in September 2011, he was charged with sexual assaults against eight women, and a month later three more accusers came forward. In the ensuing years, the case was whittled down to two victims he was charged with attacking and two others whose allegations were used to provide further evidence of a pattern.

Maralan received credit for roughly two years, 10 months behind bars.

Maralan argued he should get more custody credits for being in home confinement in the years leading up to trial, but after checking the records he was granted only an additional day.

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