Minneapolis, MN
Convicted Minneapolis rapist sentenced after rape kit went untested for a decade
Convicted rapist faces sentence for 2010 assault
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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – It took a pair of rape victims greater than a dozen years to get justice for a 2010 gunpoint assault. On Monday, their assailant, James Works was sentenced to greater than 32 years in jail. The case took so lengthy to prosecute as a result of important DNA proof sat untested for years.
“I can simply let that on this case, , justice was delayed, however it wasn’t denied,” Hennepin County District Courtroom Decide William Koch advised Works throughout sentencing. “Justice arrived, simply late, however it did arrive.”
The Hennepin County Legal professional’s workplace experiences the case towards Works is the primary one to web a conviction in a joint effort to check beforehand untested sexual assault kits collected by the Minneapolis Police Division.
There have been a few causes these rape kits went untested, the victims advised FOX 9 they had been younger, troubled and scared, and had used faux names with investigators once they first reported the assault, explaining they didn’t wish to be arrested themselves. However they by no means stopped hoping today would come. And so they had been within the courtroom to confront the person who damage them so horrifically.
“13 years in the past, he took a chunk of me that I felt like I might by no means get again,” Sufferer #1 advised the courtroom throughout her emotional influence assertion.
Separately, the 2 victims stepped in entrance of Decide Koch, simply toes from their attacker, and shared years of ache and trauma over what occurred that June night time, 2010.
They requested FOX 9 to not present their faces on digicam however insisted their phrases be heard far past the courtroom partitions.
Sufferer #2 stated, “I used to be disrespected, dehumanized, belittled… stripped of my dignity and vanity.”
Proof would present the ladies had been held at gunpoint and raped by Works. However proof collected by investigators on the time went untested for greater than a decade.
Lastly, in 2021, as a part of the joint Minneapolis Sexual Assault Package Initiative, the Bureau of Felony Apprehension ran DNA assessments that hit on Works, who had emerged as a possible suspect in different assaults on space girls via the years. A jury discovered Works responsible at trial in late March. Decide Koch handed him a 390-month sentence or 32-and-a-half years for rape and kidnapping.
“This particular person sexually assaulted two folks over ten years in the past,” Hennepin County Legal professional Mary Moriarty advised FOX 9’s Paul Blume after the listening to. “He’s a hazard to the neighborhood.“
Moriarty stated her workplace is targeted on getting justice in intercourse assault instances, describing a multi-faceted effort together with continued forensic testing of rape kits which will stay on proof cabinets, embedding a prosecutor inside MPD’s Intercourse Crimes Unit, and prioritizing sufferer advocacy to assist information people via the prison justice system as soon as they file a report.
“We all know the preliminary response and what occurs proper after that’s actually important with gathering the kinds of proof that we must be profitable in these sorts of prosecutions. So that could be a precedence of mine,” defined Moriarty.
“Whatever the scenario of the way it turned out proper now, I settle for the implications,” stated Works, who tried to reduce his conduct when given the chance to handle the courtroom.
However it’s his victim-survivors who vowed to have the final phrase.
“I simply needed to let him know that he won’t decide the place my life ends. And he won’t. I can’t dwell in worry anymore due to his actions,” concluded Sufferer #1.
Given state sentencing pointers, on the very least, Works will spend almost 22 years behind bars, that means he can be in his 70s when he’s launched. At which level, Works can be required to register as a predatory offender for the remainder of his life.
The BCA reported Monday that there are nonetheless 621 untested sexual assault kits ready to be examined statewide. The typical turnaround time for testing proper now could be 124 days.