Boston – A rape suspect who twice won mistrials because key DNA evidence could have come from either him or his twin brother was convicted Wednesday in his third trial.
Darrin Fernandez, 31, was convicted in an April 2001 attack on a Boston woman who said she was repeatedly raped by a man who climbed up a fire escape and broke into her second-floor bedroom while she slept.
Jurors in the previous trials deadlocked, saying afterward they were unable to agree on whether Fernandez was guilty because DNA from semen found on the woman’s pillowcase could have come from either him or his identical twin.
During the third trial, prosecutors urged jurors to consider a “pattern of behavior” they said distinguished Fernandez from his brother.
Prosecutors introduced evidence they said showed Fernandez committed a series of home break-ins, sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults with characteristics similar to the rape in 2001.
He is serving a 10- to 15-year prison sentence for a rape in 2000.
Fernandez was charged in both rapes after he was arrested in July 2001 while allegedly trying to break into an apartment.
Police matched the DNA in blood found on broken glass at the scene to DNA in semen from the two rapes.
Prosecutors did not seek to introduce details of the August 2000 rape during Fernandez’s two previous trials on the 2001 rape, saying they didn’t want to put that victim through the trauma of testifying again, but they did call her for the third trial.
Prosecutor David Deakin said her testimony was vital.
