Baltimore police have charged a 46-year-old man with committing an armed home invasion rape in Roland Park ? half a year after DNA evidence cleared the man previously arrested in the case.
Roger Ervin, of the 3500 block of Dudley Avenue in Baltimore, was held without bail Monday after police found a DNA match in the state?s database tying him to the crime, according to charging documents.
Neither police nor prosecutors wanted to comment on the case, citing its sensitive nature.
At about 8 p.m. Aug. 23, a 59-year-old grandmother was in her kitchen on the 700 block of Colorado Avenue when two unknown men entered her home, and one raped her during a robbery, police said.
The woman had returned home from shopping and left her keys in the front door while retrieving groceries, police said.
After unloading the items, she began making dinner ? and while standing at the stove, she heard footsteps behind her, according to court documents.
“When she turned around, the suspects were in her kitchen, both pointing handguns at her,” Detective Sarah Connolly wrote in charging documents.
The suspects took her wallet ? which had $7 in it ? and then one forced her upstairs, where he raped her, police said.
During the attack, the woman told the suspects that she “was a grandmother and was to have a party for her grandchildren”; that she couldn?t get up because she felt “paralyzed”; and begged, “please don?t rape me,” charging documents state.
Police initially charged Chaz Ricks, 20, of Gwynn Oak, as a suspect after the victim provided a description of her attackers. A sketch artist depicted a rendering of a suspect, which a detective identified as Ricks, police said.
But prosecutors dropped all charges against Ricks a month later after DNA evidence proved he was not involved.
On March 11, police received notice that Ervin?s DNA matched the rapist?s.
Ervin?s DNA was on file due to his 1985 conviction for robbery with a deadly weapon in Baltimore County and his conviction for conspiracy to commit theft in Anne Arundel County in 1992, court records show.
The detectives brought in the victim for a photo array, but she said she could not identify Ervin out of the suspects? pictures, police said.
Based on the DNA evidence, officers then obtained a warrant for Ervin?s arrest, charging documents state.
