DNA from cigarette solves 1998 rape

Steve Wisbauer/Getty Images

DNA from a cigarette butt left near a rape scene in 2011 links a Staten Island man to a brutal 1998 rape.

A Staten Island man who raped and robbed a college professor nearly 14 years ago, holding a piece of broken glass to her neck, pleaded guilty to the heinous crime on Tuesday, after being busted by DNA from a cigarette he discarded near the scene of another sexual assault.

Lerio Guerrero, 34, tossed a cigarette butt near the scene of a 2011 sexual assault in Brooklyn. While he was never charged in that rape, police arrested him for trespassing and matched his DNA to the cigarette.

A search of the state DNA database came up with a hit from the rape on Orchard St. on a chilly November night back in 1998.

A masked Guerrero pushed a 28-year-old professor as she stepped into her apartment building, then raped and sodomized her.

Not satisfied with just brutalizing her and taking what was left in her wallet, the sicko dragged her to an ATM to steal her money.

"He held a piece of broken glass against her neck. He said there was not enough money in her wallet," said Assistant District Attorney Martha Bashford. The prosecutor said he made her call her credit card company to allow him to steal more money out of her account.

He robbed her of $800, but as he forced her to a second ATM, the victim was able to break free and get help.

Without having the name of a suspect, in 2005 prosecutors indicted just the DNA extracted from the blood he left behind on the victim's coat when he cut his hand on the jagged piece of glass.

See the original post here:
DNA from cigarette solves 1998 rape