A Stamford man was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a heavily sedated woman in a Norwalk hospital in 2020.

Rodney Daniels, 48, was sentenced Tuesday in Stamford Superior Court, where he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by eight years of special parole, according to Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.

The sentence came after he pleaded guilty during an earlier hearing to two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Those charges were upgraded from Class C felonies to B felonies after prosecutors accused Daniels of being a serious persistent offender, according to court officials.

Both sexual assault charges stem from a reported incident on Aug. 29, 2020, when Daniels was taken by ambulance to Norwalk Hospital after he said he had taken hallucinogenic drugs, authorities said. In the hospital’s emergency room in the early hours of the morning, officials said Daniels “sneaked” into an examination room of a female patient and sexually assaulted her while she was under heavy sedation.

A nurse who checked on the patient found Daniels lying next to the victim with his face in her chest and his hand touching her inappropriately, criminal justice officials said. Authorities also said they were able to extract Daniels’ DNA from the victim.