DA: DNA database key in arrest of rape suspect

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said police might not have caught the ex-con accused of raping his wife’s 67-year-old neighbor had legislation not been passed in 2004 to retroactively record the DNA of all convicted felons.

The DNA of Raymond Epps Jr., 50, was not in the state database when he began serving a seven-year sentence in 2001 for breaking and entering. But it was there when he walked out of MCI-Cedar Junction on June 23 - one month and a day before he allegedly brutalized and threatened to kill the South End victim.

Because the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association pushed to expand the DNA database beyond violent felons, “We were able to identify a suspect very rapidly and make an arrest far sooner than we would have prior to 2004,” Conley said. “In fact, Epps probably would have gone free.”

Epps, whose criminal history dates back to 1974 and whose aliases include Monty Garrett, was held on $750,000 cash bail by Judge Sally A. Kelly after pleading not guilty yesterday in Boston Municipal Court to aggravated rape, kidnapping and unarmed robbery.

In addition to his DNA being amatch in a rape-kit test, police have recovered from Epps’ wife’s home in the same apartment building clothing matching a description provided by the victim, as well as a towel she said he stole from her apartment on July 24and a pair of pearl earrings, her mother’s birthstone ring and a diamond ring.

“Mr. Epps denies it - denied it to the police who arrested him,” said defense attorney Christopher Skinner.

Epps allegedly told the woman, “You scream, (expletive), I will kill you,” after getting her to open the door by posing as a maintenance worker there to inspect her smoke alarm. Before raping her, prosecutors said Epps dragged her around her home with one hand around her throat and a scented cloth pressed to her face.