BOSTON, Aug. 3, 2015—A California man who went to trial because Suffolk prosecutors indicted his unique genetic profile before his identity was known was convicted of raping a woman in her Boston apartment – nearly two decades after the crimes occurred, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

DERRICK SCOTT (D.O.B. 4/10/78), most recently of California and formerly of Georgia, was found guilty today of rape and kidnapping for crimes he committed in 1996.  A Suffolk Superior Court jury heard evidence and testimony presented over the course of nearly three days and deliberated for one day before returning their verdicts.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Martin of the DA’s Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Unit presented evidence and testimony to prove that Scott, a resident of Georgia on Oct. 19, 1996, was in Boston selling magazines door to door when he knocked on the door of the victim, then a 21-year-old Boston University student living off-campus in a Brighton apartment.  The victim allowed him inside but then asked him to leave after he made several sexual advances toward her. 

Scott put his arms around the victim’s neck and led her into a bedroom where he raped her, the evidence showed.  She contacted Boston Police and was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where she underwent an exam during which DNA evidence was collected.

The victim was able to provide police with a physical description of her assailant, as well as information that she had gleaned from their conversation prior to the attack, including information that the attacker’s name was Derrick and that he was from Georgia.

In 2011, facing a deadline in the 15-year statute of limitations with no additional information on the attacker’s identity, Conley’s office indicted the unknown suspect as “John Doe,” identified by his DNA profile rather than his true name.  This practice was approved by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court in 2010 amid the Suffolk County prosecution of serial rapist JERRY DIXON (D.O.B. 4/19/73).

Investigators also submitted the assailant’s DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which contains samples from known offenders and unknown offenders whose DNA has been recovered from crime scenes.  On Oct. 25, 2013, that profile was found to be a match to Scott, who had been ordered to provide a DNA sample as the result of a felony OUI arrest in California.  He was arrested in Sacramento, California.

Sexual assault can happen to anyone. While the victims of any crime are asked to call 911 in an emergency, the survivors of sexual violence in Suffolk County can also call the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline at 800-841-8371. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center provides medical advocacy, legal services, counseling, and other services to victims of rape and sexual assault.

Kerry Kolditz is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Scott was represented by Kernahan Buck.  Sentencing before Judge Mitchell Kaplan will take place at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday in courtroom 907.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.