In 2001, a woman was dragged into a Pacific Beach alley and sexually assaulted at knifepoint. It took more then two decades to make an arrest, but on Wednesday, the man eventually convicted as her assailant was sentenced in San Diego Superior Court to 15 years to life in prison.
The attack had gone unsolved until advances in DNA testing helped cold-case investigators zero in on a suspect, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He was identified as John House, now 53. His DNA was already on file, linked to sexual battery.
“The victim waited more than 20 years for this defendant to be brought to justice for his horrific kidnap and sexual assault,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement.
The woman had been headed home from school, walking down a street about 11 p.m. in August 2001 when a man came up from behind, put his hand over her mouth, dragged her into an alley and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint, prosecutors said.
But, the District Attorney’s Office said, the San Diego police crime lab was not able to develop a DNA profile from the specimen found on the victim’s body. In 2022, the DNA was retested and a full DNA profile was developed. It was a match to House, prosecutors said.
Authorities said he’d been convicted in another 2001 case in which five female joggers in the University City area were approached from behind and sexually battered. In that case, House was sentenced to seven years in prison.
In 2022, House was arrested and charged in connection with the assault in the Pacific Beach alley. Last November, after a day of deliberations, a San Diego jury found him guilty of a forced sex crime and kidnapping in the attack.
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