Denver cold-case detectives used DNA to make an arrest this week in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a newspaper carrier on her early-morning route in 1993, the Denver district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Jody Ray Smith, 38, is also accused of trying to kidnap another female newspaper carrier just before that attack, prosecutors said Thursday.
He faces four sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted kidnapping charges.
Smith is in state prison. He was sentenced to 18 years on multiple drug charges in January 2008, according to the district attorney’s office.
Both incidents happened Sept. 23, 1993. The first woman screamed and was able to get away from the suspect, but a few minutes later he found another carrier getting into her car on Grant Street, prosecutors allege. The suspect forced her to drive to an alley, where he raped her, prosecutors say.
Smith has a lengthy arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1989, including charges of escape, sex offense and impersonating a police officer, records show.
