Chesterfield teen ID’d as rape suspect through DNA "cold hit" pleads no contest in 2015 attack – Richmond.com

A Chesterfield County teen who was identified through the states DNA databank as a suspect in the 2015 rape and beating of a 47-year-old Chesterfield woman was convicted Friday of maliciously wounding her in a random attack.

In a deal struck by the prosecution and defense after the teens first trial on rape and sodomy charges ended with a hung jury, Quaseer L. Carter, 18, pleaded no contest to the felony count in the Oct. 7, 2015, attack. The woman was raped, sodomized and struck twice in the face after she was dragged off the street into a grassy area between two homes, according to evidence at Carters first trial in late March.

The plea agreement was reached after both sides recognized they faced substantial credibility issues with their respective cases. The victim, who attended Fridays proceeding in Chesterfield Circuit Court, was on board with the decision, Chesterfield prosecutor Stephen Sharpe told the court.

On the day of the attack, the victim was helping her former husband pack up some items for an upcoming trip at his home in the 2900 block of Goolsby Court, Sharpe said in a summary of evidence. At one point, she left and walked down Goolsby Avenue to a friends house less than a quarter-mile away to socialize.

She drank some beer with her friend before eventually leaving to walk back to her former husbands home at about 9 p.m. She was only a few houses away when a black male stopped her and asked for a cigarette, Sharpe said in his summary.

As the victim looked for a cigarette, the suspect struck her in the face in a blow that knocked her to the ground. The man then sexually assaulted the woman before raising her to her knees, when he struck her again in the face. She again was knocked to the ground.

The victim testified at Carters first trial that something must have startled the suspect, because he jumped up quickly and ran off.

The victim managed to stumble back to her former husbands house, where police were immediately called. The woman suffered several scratches and cuts, a bloodied face and other injuries to her body, Sharpe said.

The suspect was wearing dark pants and a dark-hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled down tightly over his face. It was dark outside, and the victim was unable to make out his facial features, according to evidence.

After the victim reported the attack to police, she was taken to a local hospital, where a physical evidence recovery kit was used to collect semen and other biological evidence.

The recovered evidence was sent to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, where a sample was entered into the departments computerized DNA databank that contains the DNA profiles of hundreds of thousands of convicted felons. A match was made that identified Carter as a suspect.

Carters genetic fingerprint had been added to the database after his conviction as a juvenile in Richmond on a charge of felony theft from a person. Under Virginia law, juvenile offenders ages 14 or older and convicted of a felony are required to submit a DNA sample, the same as adult offenders.

Two weeks after the Oct. 7, 2015, attack on the woman, Carter was arrested in a carjacking that occurred just two days after the Goolsby Avenue assault. But a Chesterfield jury acquitted him of that charge at his April 21 trial.

At his rape trial, Carter claimed in testimony that his victim had propositioned him for sex in exchange for money an accusation that prosecutors said the woman would emphatically deny. The teen offered no explanation for the injuries she sustained during the attack. But he claimed she filed charges against him as an act of revenge, because she was angry that he only had $5 to pay her for sex.

Carter, who was 16 at the time and lived in the area, testified that he was walking home to dinner when he encountered the woman.

The teen faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in September. The judge allowed him to remain free on bond, but he remains under electronic monitoring with an ankle bracelet.

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Chesterfield teen ID'd as rape suspect through DNA "cold hit" pleads no contest in 2015 attack - Richmond.com