DNA Match Leads to Rape Conviction

Diggs convicted of 2003 rape after DNA sample taken years later links him to the scene of the crime

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a jury has found Ronald Diggs, 36, of Huntington Station, guilty of breaking into a 22-year-old woman’s Jericho motel room and raping her at gun and knifepoint in 2003.  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.

Diggs has been convicted 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. 

Nassau County Judge Tammy Robbins presided over the trial and is scheduled to sentence the defendant June 12.  On the rape charge alone, Diggs faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Rice said that on January 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.

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.

Throughout the trial, the defense attempted to attack the credibility and reliability of the DNA test, suggesting lab errors led to the match.

“DNA evidence is nearly impossible to refute,” said Rice.  “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.”

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.

Rice said that this case marks the second time in two weeks that a Nassau County jury has convicted a defendant of rape after DNA evidence linked the perpetrator to the scene of the crime.  On May 2, a jury found 29-year-old Christopher Pearce guilty of breaking into a Roosevelt home and leading a woman at gunpoint on a series of forced ATM withdrawals, before raping and sodomizing her at a Freeport parking garage.  DNA obtained from the crime scene led to Pearce’s arrest.

“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.