MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005

D.A. BROWN: LONG ISLAND MAN CHARGED WITH RAPE IN 1997 KNIFE-POINT ASSAULT ON WOMAN IN HER HOME
Apprehended as a Result of DNA “Cold Hit”; Faces Up to 25 Years in Prison

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Long Island man has been charged with the 1997 home invasion rape of a 34-year-old Queens Village woman. The arrest was the result of a DNA ‘cold hit’ matching the DNA evidence with the defendant’s DNA profile recently entered in the National DNA Databank by Virginia law enforcement authorities.

District Attorney Brown said, “This case underscores yet again the crucial importance of DNA evidence which is irrefutable proof of guilt or innocence. After nearly eight years of avoiding arrest in the case, the defendant ultimately was done in by his own genes.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Gregory Stovall, 38, of 32 Gray Avenue in Medford, New York. The defendant was arraigned yesterday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephen Knopf and charged with Rape in the First Degree, Burglary in the First Degree, Robbery in the First Degree and Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree. The defendant was ordered held without bail. He faces up to 25 years if convicted.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, on December 11, 1997, between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., the victim, a then 34-year-old female, returned to her Queens Village home and found the front door unlocked. Upon entering, it is alleged that the defendant, wearing a mask, lunged at her and after a brief struggle held a knife to her throat and threatened, “Don’t do anything stupid . . . You want me to cut your head off?” It is further alleged that when the victim attempted to escape, the defendant tackled her in the driveway and dragged her back inside the house, causing her to sustain multiple injuries to her body. After taking her to the basement, where he allegedly blindfolded her, bound her feet and cut off articles of her clothing, he raped her and then bound her hands before fleeing with her car and other personal items – including a mink coat, a VCR, fax machine and Christmas presents.

The victim was treated at a local hospital and medical personnel prepared a sexual assault evidence kit. Last week, a DNA sample taken by Virginia law enforcement officials after the defendant was charged with burglary and entered into the National DNA database known as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) positively matched rape kit DNA collected in the Queens Village case.

The investigation was conducted by Detectives Richard Santangelo and Steve Dorn of the New York City Police Department’s Queens Special Victims Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Arthur Hall and Sergeant Carmen Martinez.

Assistant District Attorney Eric C. Rosenbaum, Chief of the District Attorney’s DNA Prosecutions Unit assisted in the investigation and is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief of District Attorney Brown’s Special Victims Bureau and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa.

It should be noted that criminal charges are merely accusations and that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.