DNA ‘cold hit’ helps nab 1997 rapist

A Long Island man has pleaded guilty in the 1997 home invasion rape of a 34-year-old Queens Village woman. The arrest and prosecution are the result of a DNA ‘cold hit’ which matched the DNA crime scene evidence with the defendant’s DNA profile which had recently been entered in the National DNA Databank by Virginia law enforcement authorities.
Gregory Stovall, 38, of Medford, New York pleaded guilty to first-degree rape before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Kohm who indicated that he would sentence the defendant to a term of 23 years in prison at sentencing on March 2.
According to the charges, between 6 and 7 p.m. on December 11, 1997, the defendant entered the Queens Village home of the then-34-year-old victim and waited for her to come home from work. When she entered her home, Stovall, 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?”
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 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.
A DNA sample was taken in September 2005 by Virginia law enforcement officials after the defendant was charged with burglary. The sample, which was entered into the National DNA database known as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), positively matched rape kit DNA collected in the Queens Village case.