DNA database expansion helps convict rapist Richard Thomas in '96, '04 rapes

[The Bobster]

http://www./news/ny_crime/2009/10/31/2009-10-31_victims_lobbying_helps_sink_rapist.html

Victim's lobbying for DNA database expansion helps convict rapist Richard Thomas in '96, '04 rapes
by Thomas Zambito
Daily News Staff Writer

Saturday, October 31st 2009, 4:50 AM

Richard Thomas was coonvicted yesterday in the 1996 rape of a woman whose lobbying for the expansion of a DNA database for convicted felons helped cops nab her attacker.

http://assets./img/2009/10/31/alg_richard_thomas.jpg

The jury in Queens Supreme Court took just 20 minutes to find Thomas, 43, guilty of the rape of Carol Dickerson as well as the 2004 rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Queens prosecutors used a DNA sample Thomas was forced to submit following a 2006 grand larceny conviction to link him to the gunpoint rape of Dickerson.

[The Bobster]

http://www./news/ny_crime/2009/11/18/2009-11-18_dnalist_con_gets_75_yrs_in_rapes.html

DNA-list coon gets 75 years in rapes
BY Thomas Zambito
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A Queens rapist nailed after a victim lobbied to expand the state's DNA database continued to insist he was innocent Tuesday as a judge sentenced him to 75 years.

"I am not a rapist," Richard Thomas, 43, said as a Queens Supreme Court justice announced his punishment for two sickening sexual assaults. "I am not a chile molester or nuffin. I di-int commit dis crime, your honor."

Thomas was linked to the 1996 rape of Carol Dickerson when the genetic material he left behind was matched to a DNA sample he gave after a 2006 larceny conviction.

Dickerson was an advocate for a law that forced felons like Thomas to submit DNA. After he gave his sample, Thomas was convicted of raping her and a 12-year-old girl.

"My life has never been the same," said Dickerson, who was abducted with her boyfriend, raped and tossed into a car trunk. "A big piece of me actually did die that night."

After she stepped down, she put her arm around the crying mother of the 12-year-old, who was robbed of her lunch money, beaten and raped on the way to school in 2004.