Police in D.C. say a former District man serving a double life sentence for a 2015 home invasion rape in the Baltimore, Maryland, area is also responsible for breaking into two homes in the D.C. area and sexually assaulting two children years before.
Alphonso Owens, 42, was indicted in both D.C. and Prince George’s County this week on charges of rape, assault and sexual abuse in connection with the late-night attacks, which took place in 2011 and had gone unsolved for more than a decade.
During a news conference Thursday, D.C. Police Commander John Haines said DNA evidence from 2011 that was retested using more advanced technology in 2020 ultimately linked Owens to both attacks.
In the first attack, which occurred Sept. 26, 2011, police said Owens broke into a residence in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in the early morning hours, sexually assaulted a 10-year-old child and then fled.
The second attack took place about a month later, on Oct. 29, 2011. Owens is accused of sneaking through a window in a ground-floor apartment in the Fort Stanton area of Southeast D.C. and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl who was sleeping inside. The intruder threatened to kill the girl if she yelled or screamed, authorities said.
Owens was a stranger to both children and their families, police said.
The D.C. case was initially assigned to Detective Scott Dowling, who said investigators were able to obtain a partial male DNA profile at the time — but it was too small to be uploaded to the national DNA database, known as CODIS, which often helps police link previously unknown cases.
Eventually, the case was assigned to the department’s cold case sexual assault unit, where, more recently, Detective Alex P. McBean reevaluated the evidence and had it submitted using more advanced DNA testing than was available in 2011.
Several rounds of testing on different items of evidence were performed; finally, on the third attempt, investigators got a link to Owens, Haines said.
It’s not entirely clear why the Maryland case wasn’t connected to Owens sooner, since convicted felons in Maryland are required to submit DNA samples. Owens was convicted in 2016 of first-degree rape for a 2015 home-invasion-style attack on a woman in Catonsville, Maryland. He is serving two life sentences plus 25 years at the North Branch Correctional Institute, in Cumberland, Maryland.
‘Outstanding’
During the news conference Thursday, Haines said investigators obtained DNA in the 2011 Maryland case, but it initially failed to return to generate a match in the CODIS database. He said it was only after Prince George’s County police reevaluated the case and entered the sample into a Maryland state database that it yielded the hit to Owens.
“We’ve been working on this case off and on for 11 years,” Dowling said. “And to have some work I did in 2011 come to fruition is outstanding. I couldn’t be happier for the victim, particularly.”
Owens appeared in D.C. Superior Court Thursday for an arraignment. He was indicted on three counts of first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances and three counts of first-degree child sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances. The D.C. charges carry a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of release. Owens pleaded not guilty.
In Prince George’s County Court, where Owens was indicted Oct. 11, he is charged with first-degree rape; second-degree assault; second-, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses, and first-degree burglary. The charges in Maryland carry a maximum punishment of life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 25 years.
