OGDEN -- In a case made by DNA, a former Ogden man has been extradited from Mississippi to face charges for a 1996 rape that occurred in an Ogden mall shop as he was allegedly robbing the place.
Deon Lucero, 39, is charged with aggravated sexual abuse, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping in the Aug. 29, 1996, assault in a store in Newgate Mall.
"There were numerous layers of evidence at the crime scene," said Ogden Police Lt. Mike Ashment. "With that evidence, we were able to identify Mr. Lucero."
DNA evidence from the crime scene matched with a database for inmates at the Mississippi State Prison, he said.
That led to Ogden Detective Rick Childress interviewing Lucero at the Mississippi prison, producing further evidence against the inmate, Ashment said.
Lucero is serving time there on two counts of sexual battery, according to court records.
Lucero was arraigned last week in 2nd District Court in Ogden and will appear Thursday before Judge Michael Lyon for a scheduling conference.
The incident in the "Afterthoughts" store in Newgate Mall began 15 years ago with the robbery at knifepoint of $304.79 from the shop's cash register.
The suspect came into the store alone and was talking to the female clerk about buying merchandise for his young children, an infant and a 4-year-old, when he brandished a knife with a 6-inch blade and a wooden handle, according to charging documents.
The suspect forced the woman to open the cash register, then he put the cash in a sack with the store's name on it.
He then forced the woman into a back room and told her to take off her stockings, underwear and skirt, telling her she was cute, read the court papers.
Gagging the woman with her own apparel, he sexually assaulted her at least twice. Afterward, he moved her to a restroom, where he bound her to a handicapped railing.
He told her to stay there for 20 minutes. "He said if she did, he would not kill her, and left," according to charging documents.
Others in the store looking for an employee to assist them told police they observed the suspect come out from a back room area and tell them "she will be right out, she is in the bathroom."
He walked out the front door of the business without stopping.
Within a few minutes, the woman had untied herself and ran crying out of the store to a mall information booth, where officers responding to the scene found her hiding.
Comments