SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento law enforcement officials and District Attorney Thien Ho held a joint news conference Tuesday morning, revealing new details about a series of sexual assaults in the Sacramento area dating back more than a decade.
The news conference follows last week's arrest of 35-year-old Kabeh Cummings who faces several charges related to the sexual assaults.
Officials said DNA evidence and investigative genetic genealogy was crucial in linking Cummings to three sexual assaults in the Sacramento area after the cases went cold.
Cummings' whereabouts were unknown for years until he was located in New York and ultimately arrested last week.
He was brought back to Sacramento on Friday where he was booked into the Sacramento County Jail on multiple sexual assault charges.
"I hope that this arrest brings some closure to those victims and makes our community a little safer by taking a predator off the streets," said Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester.
Chief Lester said two of the assaults happened in the city: one in February 2010 near Franklin Blvd and Calvine Road and the other happened a month later on Florin Road.
In both cases, police said the victims were walking home when they were grabbed from behind, strangled and sexually assaulted by an unknown man. Both cases were reported to police and DNA samples were collected, but at the time there were no matches in the system so the cases went cold.
ABC10 spoke with one of the victims who asked to remain anonymous. She said she was attacked while walking home from Cosumnes River College in 2010.
"When it all first happened, I was really hoping that the DNA and everything would help catch him, but as the years went by, I lost hope," she said.
Then in September 2013, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said another victim was violently sexually assaulted near Watt Ave and Auburn Blvd. In this case, the Sheriff's Office said the suspect pointed a stun gun at her, threatening her life.
ABC10 discovered Cummings was named in a lawsuit in New York in 2019, in which he was accused of having sex with one of the 14-year-old girls he was in charge of supervising in a foster care program back in 2015.
ABC10 also confirmed Cummings worked for the City of Sacramento 2008 to 2014, which was during the time of the assaults. The City told ABC10 Cummings worked in the City’s Department of Youth, Parks and Community Engagement. The majority of his employment was as a program leader and site coordinator with the START program, an educational program for children in the Sacramento region.
"We don't have any information to believe these cases are related to that employment," Chief Lester said.
Sacramento police do not know if there are any additional victims at this time, but with Cummings' picture and information out, they are asking additional victims or anyone who knows about the crimes to contact their tip line at 916-808-1773.
District Attorney Thien Ho said with all the charges, Cummings could face a maximum sentence of over 180 years to life in prison. Cummings will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
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