A 46-year-old man who admitted to after offering to walk her home has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, prosecutors say.
Leonard Botello pleaded guilty this year to sexual assault and second-degree assault causing serious bodily injury. Upon his release from prison, authorities say he must also serve 10 years of intensive supervised probation for sex offenders.
The case was cold until police were able to link Botello to the crime through DNA. He was arrested Oct. 30, 2015.
According to the Denver District Attorney’s Office, Botello sexually assaulted the 61-year-old woman in October 2008 on the 4100 block of Tennyson Street.
“The victim had met Botello at a bar where she was working and he offered to take her home,” the office said in a Friday news release. “She thought he was going to drive her, but when they got outside he told her he did not have a car and would walk her home.”
As they were walking, Botello asked the woman to have sex with him, authorities say. When she refused, he forced her to the ground and raped her, according to prosecutors.
“The case remained unsolved until Botello was identified as a suspect through a DNA match,” the news release said.
