Dawn Nguyen denied release from prison

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A federal judge, for the second time, has denied a compassionate release request from a woman who purchased guns that were used to kill two Webster firefighters in 2012.

Dawn Nguyen, 32, asked to serve the remainder of her prison sentence at home because of fears that she might catch the coronavirus in prison.

“Nguyen has not carried her burden of establishing extraordinary and compelling reasons for release,” U.S District Court Judge David G. Larimer wrote in a three-page decision in July denying Nguyen’s initial request.

“I have carefully considered Nguyen’s motion to reconsider … The medical issues referenced there were the basis of Nguyen’s original motion and no new medical evidence has been presented. The court did consider Nguyen’s medical conditions in its previous decision and  found, as I now do, that those conditions are not of a nature to place Nguyen at a significantly higher risk for infection,’ Larimer wrote in the latest decision, released Thursday.

On Sept. 17, 2014, she was sentenced to eight years in prison. Nguyen is being held at Federal Prison Camp Alderson in West Virginia. She is expected to be released in June 2021.

According to court papers, Nguyen claimed she has a prediabetes condition and other medical problems, “but none of them, whether considered separately or together, warrant relief,” Larimer wrote.

None of the conditions are mentioned in her medical records and she denied having diabetes during a medical exam at the prison.

Larimer also noted in his initial denial that conditions at Alderson “are not of concern.”

“It appears that staff at Alderson have taken steps to prevent spread of the virus … There are no active cases of the COVID-19 virus involving either staff or inmates at Alderson,” he wrote.

In June 2014, Nguyen pleaded guilty to three counts of making false statements in relation to the acquisition of a firearm, disposition of a firearm to a convicted felon and possession of a firearm by an unlawful drug user.

Nguyen provided guns to William Spengler, who used the weapons to kill his sister and two firefighters responding to a fire he started. Spengler then killed himself.

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