DNA leads to arrest in 1991 city rape case

WORCESTER— One week before the 15-year statute of limitations ran out on a Dewey Street rape investigation, a former city man with an extensive criminal history was charged in the case, based on a DNA record.

Tyrone Garden, 42, with a last-known address in Boston, was arraigned on a charge of aggravated rape last week in Central District Court in connection with the September 1991 rape of a 33-year-old woman in her Dewey Street apartment. The arraignment came after he finished a jail sentence in an unrelated case.

Mr. Garden was held on $50,000 cash bail and his case was continued to April 5.

In September, with the 15-year statute of limitations nearing, the court issued a criminal complaint against Mr. Garden.

According to court records and police Sgt. Michael A. Cappabianca of the Special Crimes Division, Mr. Garden’s DNA profile on file with the state led to his arrest.

Sgt. Cappabianca, who has been in contact with the victim, said the events on Sept. 18, 1991, caused the woman to lose her relationships with her husband, children and family.

“She had a real tough 15 years, and is real happy it is coming to a conclusion and she is going to get her day in court,” the sergeant said yesterday.

The woman was asleep in her apartment when she woke up to find a man on top of her, police reports on file in court said.

“ ‘If you make a move or sound, I will kill you,’ ” the man allegedly said. “ ‘I have a gun.’ ”

The man allegedly repeated the threat over and over while he raped the woman. The victim’s young son was sleeping in another room during the attack, police said.

Investigators were called to the apartment, and evidence was collected when the victim went to a city hospital. Police then took the body fluid recovered to the state police crime laboratory, according to a search warrant affidavit on file in court.

DNA was extracted from the fluids and the profile was entered into the state Combined DNA Index System, called CODIS.

After the rape, the victim left the state because of what happened. Years went by, and about three years ago she started to put her life back together, Sgt. Cappabianca said.

She called the sergeant Sept. 19 to inquire about her case. That’s when he told her that a few days earlier, a warrant had been issued for Mr. Garden’s arrest.

“She felt validated,” Sgt. Cappabianca said. “It was an extremely traumatic event in her life.”

Information leading to the arrest warrant came May 15, when an administrator for the state CODIS out of the state police crime laboratory said a match was found for the 1991 rape, Sgt. Cappabianca wrote in the search warrant affidavit. The DNA profile was run through the system Dec. 17, 2005, with the result coming months later. CODIS authorities were running a backlog of old cases when the match was discovered.

The DNA profile in the rape case allegedly matched the profile of Mr. Garden, a “convicted offender” whose DNA profile was already in the system, the sergeant wrote. He did not know how the profile entered the system.

Mr. Garden has a long criminal history. According to the Web site for the CODIS Unit, as of February 2004 a state law was passed requiring people convicted of a felony to submit a blood sample to the state police crime laboratory. The sample is then tested and the DNA profile is entered into the CODIS system.

“Crime scene DNA evidence can be compared to other case samples to link cases, or to the database of convicted felon DNA profiles in an attempt to make a “cold hit” in cases without suspects,” the state Web site said.

A “cold hit” can be used to attain probable cause for a search warrant so an investigator can retrieve a new DNA sample from the suspect. If the new sample matches the crime scene evidence, the information is used in court, the Web site said.

That is the exact path taken by investigators in the 1991 rape case. Once Sgt. Cappabianca was told about the DNA-profile match, he applied for a search warrant to take a DNA saliva swab from Mr. Garden. The warrant was issued Oct. 12.

The next day the sergeant went to the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston where Mr. Garden was serving nine months for assault, breaking and entering and possession of burglary tools. He had been sentenced on June 22 in Dorchester District Court on those charges.

Sgt. Cappabianca said the new DNA sample matched the crime scene evidence in the city rape case and the DNA profile in the CODIS system. Mr. Garden was 26 years old at the time of the rape.

Court records show the criminal complaint and warrant for the rape case was issued out of Central District Court on Sept. 11, 2006, seven days before the 15-year statute of limitations would have expired on the rape case.

Mr. Garden was released from jail on March 5 after his sentence in Boston was complete, then immediately taken to Worcester to face the rape charge.

Sgt. Cappabianca said authorities waited until his release from jail before bringing him to Worcester court.

Police have other unsolved rape cases being run through the CODIS system. Sgt. Cappabianca said the department believes several more cases will also have a conclusion.

When asked how he felt to tell the victim an arrest was made in her case, the sergeant said in his 10 years as a special crimes investigator he is aware of only a fraction of what victims go through.

He said the investigators speak and talk with victims after the crime happens and for days after, but rape victims usually experience long-term trauma.

“Some of the victims don’t suffer until days, weeks or years later,” Sgt. Cappabianca said.