Cuyahoga County prosecutors genealogical DNA unit IDs three more men accused of raping women in the 1990s – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalleys office has used burgeoning DNA technology to identify three men who are accused of carrying out a combined six sexual assaults across Cleveland in the 1990s.

Two of the men, who were indicted in recent years as John Doe defendants, have pleaded not guilty to charges including rape. The third man died in 2020, prosecutors said.

OMalley and Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mary Weston said that they went as far as to get a search warrant to get a sample of the tissue of the man who died from the Cleveland Clinic, where he had been treated for pancreatic cancer, so they could test his DNA against that taken from one of the rape kits.

OMalleys office teamed up with the Texas-based genetic testing company Gene by Gene and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yosts Offices forensic crime lab to use the same technique -- and the same genealogist -- that led to the 2018 arrest of the notorious Golden State Killer.

The process, which began with grant money from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2019 and is known as the G.O.L.D. Unit, identified the first defendant earlier this year. OMalley and Weston hope it will help them identify dozens more.

Its a tremendous asset that this technology has evolved to the point that were able to do the things were doing, OMalley said.

Weston said she hopes the technology can bring solace to the minds of the women who were attacked. Weston said one of the women told her that when she stands in line at a Starbucks or in a grocery store, she sometimes wonders if the man who raped her is in line behind her.

These women dont have to look over their shoulder anymore, she said. You take that anxiety out of the equation when you solve the case, even if the person is dead.

John Doe 11

OMalleys office identified John Doe 11 as Thomas Graham, who died in October 2020 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, according to his obituary. Graham is accused of raping three women in the citys West Side neighborhoods from 1993 to 1997.

In each case, Graham picked up women in their 20s off the street, drove them to another location and sexually assaulted them, prosecutors said.

He raped a 25-year-old woman at knifepoint on June 7, 1994, after he picked her up on Madison Avenue and drove to West 48th Street and Storer Avenue, prosecutors said. He picked up a 20-year-old woman near West 44th Street and Clark Avenue on Nov. 22, 1994, drove to Woodbridge Avenue and raped her, prosecutors said.

Four years later, on Aug. 30, 1998, Graham raped a 27-year-old woman in his car after he picked her up at Lorain Avenue and West 47th Street, prosecutors said.

Grahams DNA profile was indicted in 2013 alongside two other men known as John Doe 9 and John Doe 10.

The genealogy company the prosecutors office works with sent OMalleys office Grahams name as a potential match for John Doe 11s DNA profile earlier this year. Once investigators learned he died last year, they surreptitiously obtained an item from one of Grahams relatives and pulled their DNA off it and sent it to be tested. Investigators matched the DNA to a descendant of John Doe 11, prosecutors said.

OMalley said that since his office was unable to get a confirmation sample directly from Graham, he had his office obtain a search warrant to get a tissue sample from the Cleveland Clinic where Graham had received treatment for pancreatic cancer.

The hospital complied with the warrant and DNA testing confirmed that Grahams DNA matched John Doe 11s, prosecutors said.

Weston filed a motion to dismiss the charges against John Doe 11 as abated by death on Dec. 16.

John Doe 64

Leo Bradley Scott Jr., 60, is charged with three counts of rape and two counts of kidnapping in separate attacks of two women on Clevelands East Side in 1994 and 1998.

Prosecutors said Scott grabbed a 22-year-old woman on Oct. 14, 1994, while she was walking on Euclid Avenue near East 118th Street and dragged her to nearby train tracks, where he sexually assaulted her.

In April 1998, prosecutors say Scott pulled up to a 26-year-old woman who was walking home from a party at the Zulu Motorcycle Club and offered her a ride. When the woman said no, Scott pulled her into the car, drove to a parking lot in East Cleveland and raped her inside the car, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors indicted a DNA profile contained in the rapes as John Doe 64 in 2014.

The genealogy company identified Bradley as a potential match to the DNA profile this summer, and investigators pulled a DNA sample off of an item he had touched and testing confirmed the match. The U.S. Marshals office arrested Bradley in July.

John Doe 102

Prosecutors also identified 48-year-old Rayshawn Hundley as the man who was indicted as John Doe 102 in the burglary and rape of a 16-year-old girl on New Years Eve in 1995.

The girl, who lived in Alabama but was visiting family in Cleveland for the holidays, told police she woke up to find a strange man going through the house. The man then attacked the girl and sexually assaulted her, then stole a VCR and videotapes, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors indicted the DNA profile contained in the girls rape kit in 2015. The genealogy tests gave prosecutors the names of two possible suspects as a match for the profile, and they independently obtained samples from Hundley and matched his DNA to the profiles, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors named Hundley as a defendant in court filings in September. His trial is set for February 2022.

The girl, who was then in her early 40s, died this August as prosecutors were waiting to confirm the identity of her attacker, prosecutors said.

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Cuyahoga County prosecutors genealogical DNA unit IDs three more men accused of raping women in the 1990s - cleveland.com