SACRAMENTO, Calif. — New details are being released in the trial of the man dubbed the Cloverleaf Rapist after a series of sexual assaults in Sacramento County.
The trial against J.D. Wallace Simien continued on Thursday as prosecutors presented how they were able to get DNA evidence. Simien was arrested back in November of 2021 for a series of sexual assaults in northern Sacramento that happened between 2013 and 2014.
During the investigation, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office said the suspect was referred to as the "Cloverleaf Rapist" because many of the assaults happened near freeway entrances and exits, resembling a cloverleaf pattern.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office used Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Since 2014, about 20 samples were tested but there were no hits until a sample of Simien's was included years later.
"So there's two basic types of hits that you might get in CODIS. You might get to an individual person that's in the CODIS database. You might also hit to another evidence sample from another case that's been uploaded into CODIS. And in this case, I got a hit to another case, not another person." said a professional on the stand.
In court on Thursday, Simien's attorney called in Kennaya Myers, a friend of Siemen's of 15 years. She described him as a helpful friend.
"I have never seen him act in any kind of aggressive, sexual manner and I've been with him by myself at my home. So that's a perfect opportunity to kind of switch, flip I guess, as far as if you wanted to pretend to be somebody or not," Myers said.
The prosecutor said Simien is charged with kidnapping and sexual assault of two victims. For the third victim, he's charged with assault with an attempt to commit sexual battery.
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