A man was arrested Monday in connection with the sexual assault of a high school girl in a brutal 2003 incident that detectives believe they have finally solved through advances in DNA identification technology.
Sylvester Gene Rawls, 45, was arrested outside his Long Beach home after police linked him to the case through biological evidence obtained during the original crime scene investigation. The case was pursued by the Redondo Beach Police Department’s “cold case” unsolved crime unit.
Sgt. Joe Hoffman said the case had remained a priority for the Redondo Beach Police Department despite the passing of time.
“Seven years is a long time, and I could imagine if seven years passes, the criminal might think it’s gone away,” Hoffman said. “For us, we were not going to give up that easy. This is an important case, a very serious crime, and we were not going to let it rest.”
The nature of the assault sent shock waves throughout the community at the time it occurred. It took place on Aug. 28 at about 2:15 p.m. in a bathroom near a gym on the Redondo Union High School campus. Few people were on campus at the time, a week before the start of classes. The girl, an athlete on campus for practice, entered the bathroom alone and found the man armed with a knife laying in wait. He reportedly was hiding in a bathroom stall and grabbed her as she tried to leave.
The RBPD assigned more than a dozen officers to the case, put out widespread calls for help in identifying the man through police sketches, and looked at surveillance film at all surrounding stores where he may have stopped en route to or from the high school. Nothing turned up.
According to Hoffman, increasing sophistication in the use of DNA evidence by law enforcement agencies finally caught up with the alleged assailant. Rawls was arrested in 1996 for manufacturing methamphetamines and served time until 2001; he served five years probation, and before being released from probation was required to give a DNA sample. The match between that sample and the RBPD’s sample turned up on the FBA’s DNA database, and on Dec. 22 was turned over to the cold case unit.
The cold case unit, consisting of retired RBPD officers John Skipper and Rick Peterson, had already been working on the case for six months and so were able to quickly move on it.
“This is one of those types of cases that the cold case unit was created to work,” said Skipper. “We got a great break that the DNA did come back and we were already looking at the case and pretty familiar with it.”
The case has been turned over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. Hoffman said the department felt confident, because of the evidence, that police had finally found the man responsible for the crime.
“It’s a huge case,” he said. “I have not spoken with the victim yet, but this type of incident is very traumatic for anyone to go through. If we can do our part in pursuing this case and helping the victim obtain closure, it makes this arrest all the more satisfying.”
The school district at the time had only a rudimentary security camera system. During the recent campus overhaul, a security system with more than 15 cameras has been installed.
Hoffman, who heads the detective bureau, said he was a patrol officer at the time the incident occurred and recalls everyone in the Police Department making the case a top priority. The sense of urgency never ceased, he said.
“Since coming over to investigations, I made connection with the case, because it never died – we always wanted to catch this person, even though seven years had gone by. It’s very satisfying for the entire organization that we have made this arrest. This one was really important to the community. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief…I know I did.” ER
