NEW ORLEANS — One man has now been convicted of multiple rapes over 25 years after they occurred.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said Wednesday it was a collaborative and herculean effort to serve justice for victims of rapes that date back to 1996 and 1997. Jamol Rickmon is now guilty for three rapes.
Williams says those rapes were extremely violent. One woman was raped after she was ambushed while entering her home. Another was raped in her own bed as she covered her face with a pillow to not make eye contact. The third was raped three weeks before her wedding day after she was awoken with a gun.
“There is nothing that is going to return the lives and plans and hopes and dreams that these three woman had before they were attacked brutally attacked, but now it is a hope of this office that as they try to continue to move forward they can move forward with the healing in knowing Rickmon will not hurt anyone else,” Williams said.
The D.A. added that he wants to make victims are heard from.
"My office is requesting funds for the perpetuation of witness and survivor testimony." D.A. Williams said. "Unfortunately, in this case, one of the survivors passed away before trial, and we recognize that having her words captured before her death would have been incredibly impactful."
Rickmon could face three mandatory life sentences when a judge sentences him in April.
Williams said it took new technology to solve these cases. Evidence with DNA was collected at the time of the crimes, but they were never able to connect that DNA to a suspect. The DNA collected was put into a national database but Williams says “the offenders identity was unknown for years.”
Williams says while it took a huge effort to solve these cases that had gone cold, it took more collaboration with multiple agencies to get it done.
“More than the herculean effort it was a herculean amount of collaboration and coordination that took generations of law enforcement personnel,” Williams said.
When Rickmon had plead guilty to aggravated burglaries years later, his DNA was taken as protocol. His DNA was then linked to the rapes that occurred in the 90s.
Now, New Orleans City Council V.P. Helena Moreno is working to get rapid DNA program used in the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s office so these cases don’t go cold because of a lack of DNA. Under rapid DNA testing, once someone’s swab is taken, it only takes 90 minutes to notify NOPD and the District Attorney as well as agencies across the country, about that DNA and whether it has been linked to any other unsolved crimes.
“We will be the only fourth jurisdiction in the country to have this type of technology at an intake facility,” Moreno said. “We know how critical DNA evidence is and how a match is so important to ensuring offenders don’t’ go back to our streets.”
Now, as Moreno and Williams says, it usually takes weeks, so the person is usually no longer in custody by the time they get the match. Moreno says this technology will be implemented this year.
Williams says this will lead to more convictions of cases that have gone cold.
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