Maryland Man Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison For Sexually Assaulting Woman In Northwest Washington-DNA Later Tied Him To The Crime-

     WASHINGTON - Glenn A. Smith, Jr., 37, of Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman in 2010, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

     Smith was found guilty by a jury in December 2012, following a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas J. Motley. Upon completion of his prison term, Smith will be placed on five years of supervised release. He also must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

     According to the government’s evidence, on June 13, 2010, the victim was walking down Wisconsin Avenue NW, after leaving a party in the Friendship Heights neighborhood at about 2:30 a.m.  At the time, she had just graduated from Georgetown University with highest honors in her major. Smith grabbed her behind a building, turned her away from him, and choked her. He then pushed the victim to the ground and sexually assaulted her.  When the assault was over, Smith took the victim’s underwear and wiped her with it, and then fled, taking the underwear.

     The victim immediately reported the assault to police and was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where she was treated for injuries and swabbed for DNA.  The case was cold until May 2011, when Smith was identified as a suspect through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a web of state and national databases containing DNA profiles from convicted offenders and crime scenes that is used as an investigative tool. Smith’s DNA was in the system as a result of an earlier conviction in a case involving identity fraud. MPD detectives obtained a sample of the defendant’s DNA, and it matched the DNA left behind by the assailant in 2010. 

     In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit, Second District, and officers from the Forensic Science Division.  He also expressed appreciation for the efforts of Victim/Witness Advocate Veronica Vaughn; Paralegal Specialists Jason Manuel, Tiffany Jones, and Cynthia Muhammad; Karen Lee-Putt of the Finance office; John Marsh of the Criminal Investigations Unit, and Victim/Witness Specialists David Foster and Katina Adams-Washington.  He particularly commended the work of Leif Hickling and the entire Litigation Support Staff for a strong team effort.  Lastly, Mr. Machen thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky, who investigated and tried the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenya Davis, who co-tried the case.