DNA match leads to arrest in 15-year-old rape case

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. | An arrest was made this week in a 1991 rape case after authorities matched DNA from the crime scene with a convicted felon in the state's database, police said.

Ronald Delaine Williams, 43, of Winston-Salem, was arrested Wednesday in connection with an attack on a 23-year-old woman June 19, 1991. Williams is accused of dragging the woman, raping her and stealing her rings, a bracelet and money, police said.

The case was one of 73 unsolved sexual assaults that Winston-Salem police sent to the State Bureau of Investigation's lab to test evidence from crime scenes against the state's DNA database of convicted felons.

The case was the first of the 73 cases in Winston-Salem to lead to an arrest, said David Clayton, captain of the police department's Criminal Investigations Division.

Williams was convicted in 1996 of second-degree rape stemming from a 1994 incident, according to court records. He served a 3 1/2-year prison term and got out on parole in 1999, according to N.C. Department of Correction records.

Williams returned to prison in 2004 for eight months after failing to register as a sex offender, records show.

As of Thursday night, Williams was being held in the Forsyth County jail with bond set at $50,000.