A 45-year-old Brooklyn man was convicted of a cold-case subway rape after his DNA was matched to the nearly 20-year-old rape kit, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said on Tuesday.
Johnny Jacob was convicted of first-degree rape on Monday for attacking a then-19-year-old woman on the subway platform of the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station.
Jacob first approached the woman at about 9:30 a.m. on March 2, 1998, as she was on her way to her first day of work, according to the DA’s office.
“Thanks to the DNA evidence collected at the time of this attack the defendant has now been held accountable for this brutal rape,” Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “This case once again underscores the importance of DNA evidence in proving guilt or innocence.”
The woman had just gotten of the M train when he came up to her, threatened to shoot her by holding something to her back, and told her to go to the back of the platform. Jacob then raped her, according to the DA’s office, before bringing her back outside and threatening to kill her if she called police.
The woman ran to work and her employer called police before she was taken to Lutheran Hospital and a rape kit was administered.
In October 2013, Jacob was arrested after his DNA, entered into the system following federal money laundering charges, was connected to the kit, according to the DA’s office.
Jacob is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2 and faces up to 25 years in prison.
In February, Gonzalez expanded the DA office’s forensic science unit to include a new cold case unit. While this case predates that, the new unit includes a forensic analyst who has worked at the city’s medical examiner’s office.
According to the Brooklyn DA’s office, it is the only such agency in New York State that has a forensic analyst on staff.
