DNA links burglar to 1997 rapes: prosecutors

DNA has linked a man in prison for burglary to two unsolved rapes from 1997 where the suspect broke into the apartments of sleeping women, threatened them with a knife and sexually assaulted them, prosecutors said.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the 55-year-old suspect, who is serving a 16-year sentence for a 2000 burglary case, was charged Friday with two counts of rape and two counts of sodomy for the 1997 rapes.

In the first attack in July 1997, a 23-year-old woman was asleep in her Richmond Hill apartment when a man broke in at 4 a.m. She awoke to him crouching in her bedroom, prosecutors said.

The suspect grabbed her, put a knife to her throat and demanded cash. She gave him $20 and then he sodomized and raped her.

Several months later in November, a suspect broke into another Richmond Hill apartment where a 24-year-old woman was sleeping. He showed a knife and raped the victim before he fled.

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DNA links burglar to 1997 rapes: prosecutors