A 47-year-old man has been busted for raping a woman in her Far Rockaway home more than 17 years ago after a DNA hit linked him to the crime, District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Richard Thomas, whose last known address is in the Far Rockaway area, was arraigned Friday on an indictment, charging him with rape and sodomy, according to prosecutors. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The charges came after the District Attorney Cold Case team located evidence from the crime scene that had not been previously tested for DNA, Brown said.
Thomas is accused of entering the victim’s bedroom on the night of July 28, 1996, while her husband slept next to her. Wearing a mask and armed with a gun, he threatened the husband before raping the woman on the floor, according to prosecutors. He then allegedly wiped his genitals on the floor rug and a t-shirt before fleeing.
Semen found on the rug was used to link Thomas to the rape, Brown said.
His office’s DNA Prosecutions Unit has been reviewing every unsolved sexual assault in the borough dating back to 1996, which is as far as the statute of limitations permits.
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