DNA tests help nab two rape suspects

LONG BEACH - Call it "CSI: Long Beach."

Based on DNA matches, Long Beach police have arrested two suspects in separate sexual assault cases.

Detectives tracked down the suspects - one in Compton, the other in Chicago - through "hits" in a nationwide DNA database.

The older of the two cases involved an attack on Dec. 29, 1997, at 2:30 a.m., near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Cherry Avenue, said LBPD spokeswoman Nancy Pratt.

A 33-year-old mother was at home asleep when the suspect entered the home through an unlocked or broken window.

The suspect sexually assaulted the woman while her children were in another room in the home, Pratt said. The suspect then escaped.

Police collected DNA evidence in the crime and turned it over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department crime lab, Pratt said.

The Sheriff's lab entered the data into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national database of DNA from local, state and federal agencies.

CODIS was launched in 1998; in California every convicted felon and sex offender has been required to give a sample since passage of Prop. 69 in 2004. There were 4,138,015 DNA profiles in the system as of Dec. 2006, according to the FBI.

Recently, the Illinois State Police Division of Forensic Services matched the DNA of the suspect in the 1997 case to a name.

The Chicago Police Department arrested Sherode Goodlow, 37, on Jan. 17, Pratt said.

LBPD sex crimes detectives traveled to Illinois for extradition and brought Goodlow to Long Beach on Jan. 31, Pratt said.

Goodlow was arraigned on Feb. 2 and is in Los Angeles County jail pending his next court appearance, Pratt said.

Charges of rape and forced oral copulation have been filed against him at the Long Beach Courthouse, court records show.

Detectives have notified the victim about the arrest.

"Obviously she is very relieved to know the suspect is finally in custody," Pratt said. "She is very willing to cooperate to see this process through."

In the second case, an 18-year-old woman met a man she did not know near Atlantic Avenue and Artesia Boulevard on the afternoon of March 10, 2006, at 3:20 p.m.

"She met him while walking home," Pratt said. "She stopped and they talked a little bit. It was friendly conversation and they parted ways."

A few moments later, the suspect caught up to the woman, grabbed her, dragged her between two houses and sexually assaulted her.

"She's finally able to get away and she runs home to call police," Pratt said.

DNA evidence was again put into the CODIS system.

On Jan. 16, authorities got a hit in the CODIS system and discovered the suspect was on parole.

John C. Williams Jr., 25, of Compton, was arrested on Jan. 18 at his parole officer's office in Compton, Pratt said.

Charges have been filed at the Long Beach Courthouse against Williams for kidnap, rape, assault and two counts of unlawful penetration, according to court records.

Williams has a conviction in December 2004 for possession of a firearm by a felon, court records show.

Williams is being held without bail and is due at the Long Beach Courthouse on Feb. 9.

"As more and more individuals' samples are input into the system, we will begin to see more suspects identified in various crimes," Pratt said. "It's very likely both suspects may have never been arrested and charged with these crimes (without the DNA), so we're fortunate to have access to these types of systems to take violent criminals off the streets."