Huntington Station Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Jericho Rape

2003 attack in a Jericho motel room went unsolved until authorities matched Diggs’ DNA sample to one taken at crime scene

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Ronald Diggs, who was found guilty of raping a 22-year-old woman in a Jericho motel room after his DNA sample from a separate crime was matched to the unsolved rape, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Nassau County judge.

In May, the 36-year-old Huntington Station man was convicted by a jury of Rape in the First Degree, Unlawful Imprisonment in the First Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree and Menacing in the Second Degree in May. Diggs was sentenced by Nassau County Judge Tammy Robbins.

Rice said that on Jan. 11, 2003, a masked assailant armed with a handgun and a boxcutter pushed his way into the motel room of a 22-year-old Westbury woman. The assailant bound her hands and mouth with duct tape before raping the woman at gunpoint.The attacker fled the location, the Edgewood Motel in Jericho, and the victim immediately reported the incident to police. The attacker was never apprehended.

Rice said that the break in the case came when detectives were able to match DNA from the victim’s body with DNA obtained years later in connection with a conviction for credit card theft in Suffolk County.

In September of 2006, Ronald Diggs was forced to submit a DNA sample to the state’s databank after pleading guilty to possession of stolen property and attempted assault in Suffolk County. The genetic profile given to the databank matched the unknown specimen obtained at the scene of the 2003 motel rape. A re-test of the samples returned an identical result and in July 2007 a grand jury indicted Diggs on the rape charge.

“The use of scientific evidence is crucial when it comes to convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. In this case, we were able to link DNA taken from the scene of the crime to a sample obtained recently in connection with a less serious crime,” Rice said. “The sentence handed down today reflects the horrific nature of the crime.”

State law requires those convicted of any felony and a handful of misdemeanors to submit a genetic sample to the state’s DNA databank. In 2006, Rice was a vocal supporter of a law that eventually expanded the state’s DNA databank by adding several misdemeanors to the list of crimes requiring submission of a genetic sample. Rice said that she is once again supporting legislation that would expand the list, this time to include all misdemeanor offenses.

“DNA samples are the fingerprints of the 21st century,” said Rice. “Expansion of the database is necessary in our constant fight to exonerate the innocent and hold accountable the guilty.”

Handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office is Assistant District Attorney Theresa Tebbett, of the DA’s Special Victims Bureau. Diggs is being represented by Dana Grossblatt, Esq., of Uniondale.