DNA leads to inmate's arrest

TAVARES -- A Lake County Jail inmate was charged in a year-old rape case Friday when authorities matched his DNA with evidence from the complainant.

Deputies suspect Pernell L. Johnson, 28, of Eustis picked up a hitchhiker in April 2005 and held a gun to her head, demanding she perform oral sex, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. The woman told deputies Johnson also forced her to have intercourse in the back seat of his car, the report said.

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement matched Johnson's DNA with samples taken from the woman.

Johnson was charged with sexual battery, threat of force using a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was already held at the Lake County Jail on Friday on drug and resisting-arrest charges.