Man convicted of 4 child rapes
DNA links him to 1990s attacks on girls walking to school buses

Michael Zeigler
Staff writer

(November 17, 2005) — Keith Lamar Laster was found guilty Wednesday of raping four Rochester schoolgirls a decade ago.

Jurors deliberated less than two hours before finding that Laster, 37, raped the girls, ages 12 to 17, as they walked to their school bus stops in 1995 and 1997.

Although Laster faces a prison term of up to 160 to 320 years when he's sentenced Dec. 7, state law would cap his sentence at 25 to 50 years, said District Attorney Michael C. Green.

None of the victims could identify Laster as their attacker. The key evidence against him was DNA left on the girls, which was matched to Laster through a DNA database when he surrendered a DNA sample after being charged with raping an Alabama woman in 2004.

Green attributed the quick verdict to the DNA evidence.

"These girls were put through hell," Green said. "Without DNA, these girls wouldn't have received justice. My hope is that after the verdict these young girls won't have to look over their shoulder for Keith Laster anymore."

In a joint summation to Monroe County Court jurors, Assistant Public Defenders Jill L. Paperno and Erik Teifke said the DNA wasn't conclusive evidence of guilt.

Although the prosecution cited odds that the chance of someone else having the same DNA profile as Laster was less than 1 in 300 billion, the defense claimed technicians used flawed statistics to arrive at the odds and may have tested evidence that had degraded over time.

But Green argued that the testing was sound and said the DNA showed that Laster, who lived down the street from the girl who was raped in 1997, was the attacker.

"From what you've heard in this trial ... there can be no mistake that Keith Laster is the rapist," Green said.

The victims all testified that they were walking to a bus stop in the early morning when they were attacked from behind and dragged to a secluded area, where they were attacked. One was threatened with a gun and another with a knife.

In 2000, as the statute of limitations was about to expire in the 1995 attacks, prosecutors filed an indictment identifying the rapist by the name of "John Doe" and listing his DNA profile. It was only the third time in New York that a DNA profile had been used instead of a name in an indictment.

Laster was arrested in 2004 in Alabama on suspicion of rape. He was ordered to surrender his DNA in that case. While out on bond in June in Alabama he was arrested after the link was made between his DNA and the DNA left on the Rochester girls.

Green said the conviction was made possible through forensic tests by the Monroe County Public Safety Laboratory and hard work by police Sgt. Mark D. Mariano and Investigator Daniel P. Gleason, who kept in touch with the victims over the past decade.

"They spent 10 years working on this case and never let it rest," Green said.