SUSPECT IDENTIFIED THROUGH DNA TESTING OF BACKLOGGED "RAPE KITS" SENTENCED TO A MAXIMUM TERM OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR THE SODOMY AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF 13 YEAR OLD GIRL IN 1996

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 42 year old man has been sentenced to consecutive terms of 25 years to life imprisonment for the sodomizing and sexually abusing a 13 year old girl in 1996.

Rodney Lloyd, a resident of the Men’s Shelter on Wards Island at the time of his arrest, was found guilty, on January 29, 2004, on one count of Sodomy in the 1^st degree, one count of Sexual abuse in the 1^st degree and one count of Endangering the welfare of a child.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy sentenced Lloyd to consecutive terms of 25 years to life imprisonment on the sodomy and sexual abuse charges and a concurrent term of 1 year in jail on the misdemeanor charge of Endangering the welfare of a child. Lloyd will not become eligible for parole until he has served at least 50 years in state prison. He was sentenced as a Mandatory Persistent Violent Felony Offender in light of prior convictions in 1976 for gun possession, 1978 for the sodomy and sexual abuse of two 13 year old boys, and 1991 for robbery and attempted robbery.

This most recent crime, for which Lloyd received the life sentence, occurred on May 22, 1996 following his release on parole in March 1995. Lloyd accosted his 13 year old victim at knife point in an elevator and forced her to accompany him to the roof. The girl managed to flee and ran down thirteen flights of stairs. Lloyd caught up with the young victim when she fell and fractured her ankle. He dragged her back up the stairs to the roof where the sexual assault occurred. Lloyd fled and remained at large until his arrest on November 20, 2002.

 Charges against Lloyd were filed as a result of a City initiative, announced and funded in 2000, to test a backlog of some 16,000 sexual assault evidence kits so called "rape kits." Prior to the initiative, "rape kit" specimens from hospital examinations of victims were not tested for DNA unless the identity of a suspect was known. Lloyd, whose DNA was in a state data bank because of his prior robbery conviction, was arrested after it was discovered that his DNA matched the DNA samples recovered from the 13 year old girl who had been attacked in 1996.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Mimi Mairs of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau.