Yuba County jury considers 'crazy stuff' in Tyrone Dyson trial

Tyrone Lawrence Dyson's fate is once again in the hands of a Yuba County jury.

Closing arguments were heard Thursday in the retrial of the 39-year-old Linda man charged with torturing, raping and beating his 33-year-old girlfriend during three drug-fuel days in April.

Prosecutors said Dyson sexually assaulted the woman with a knife and a sex toy, and beat her with a BB-gun, and a broomstick. He's accused of punching and kicking the alleged victim's chest and ribs.

"It's crazy stuff," said Shiloh Sorbello, deputy Yuba County district attorney. "Unfortunately, this is real life for some people."

Dyson was outraged, Sorbello said, over perceived infidelities and locked the woman in their Hile Avenue apartment in late April.

Defense attorney Brian Davis restated his belief that the allegations boil down to a case of "he said, she said." Davis criticized the alleged victim and another key witness for the prosecution, another ex-girlfriend who testified Dyson tortured and beat her in a similar fashion in 2008, focusing particularly on their admitted drug and alcohol use.

Davis said the alleged victim in this case is "not credible."

"It's unfortunate, but she has some problems," he said.

Davis said the woman could have left the apartment any time and said Dyson left the apartment several times during the three-day period in question.

Davis said both woman cooked up the allegations to punish Dyson, an admitted drug dealer, for cutting off their methamphetamine supply.

"They wanted to get their drugs," Davis said.

Sorbello called that argument "ridiculous."

"She would have him arrested, so she would never get drugs from him again?" Sorbello argued.

Dyson has claimed the woman was trying to get back at him for ending their relationship. During both trials, Dyson accused the woman of being mentally ill. He claimed he is the real victim of a conspiracy of "the power that be."

Dyson testified to making numerous making secret recordings of his girlfriends in an effort to prove they were unfaithful.

Dyson admitted his own infidelities during the relationship and has acknowledged that some may see that as a "double standard."

A jury convicted Dyson in July of threatening to kill the woman and her family, but hung on the more serious charges. Prosecutors refiled the rape, torture and assault allegations.

If convicted in the new case, Dyson faces 40 years to life in prison.

Judge Julia L. Scrogin turned the case over to the five-man, seven-woman jury late Thursday. Deliberations resume today.

CONTACT Rob Parsons at rparsons@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4785. Find him on Facebook at /ADcrimebeat or on Twitter at @ADcrimebeat.