FAYETTEVILLE -- A man living illegally in the United States pleaded guilty Monday in Washington County Circuit Court to raping a Springdale woman in 2005.
Jose Guadalupe Martinez-Rosales, 34, was sentenced to 30 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 17 years suspended. He likely will be deported upon release from prison.
Denis Dean, deputy prosecuting attorney, said the woman was sleeping with her doors and windows open July 4, 2005, because her apartment did not have air conditioning. She woke up with a stranger on top of her and was raped.
"This case is every woman's worst nightmare," Dean said.
A rape kit was performed at a local hospital, Dean said. The DNA profile obtained was put in a national database from crime scenes. The case languished for eight years.
Martinez-Rosales was arrested in 2013 in Crawford County for illegally entering the country after being deported. A DNA sample was taken from him after his arrest, and it matched the evidence from the rape case in the database.
Cold cases are often hard to prosecute because evidence gets stale and witnesses are hard to track down, Dean said. In this case, the DNA evidence was strong enough to prove the case and led to the plea bargain.
NW News on 04/22/2014