Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 09/17/2009

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Terry Menshek - (707) 565-3098 Media Spokesperson, Deputy District Attorney Tashawn Sanders

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

"COLD-HIT” DNA RAPE CASE RESULTS IN
12-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced that Robert Glenn Howell, 56, was sentenced to prison for a term of 12 years, for the forcible rape of a 16 year old that occurred in March of 2004. The Honorable Lawrence G. Antolini imposed the prison sentence today. Howell’s DNA profile created a hit on the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) when compared to the DNA profile generated from the physical evidence in the 2004 case.

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said “With the aid of the advances in DNA evidence we have been able to remove a violent sexual offender from our streets. His lengthy prison sentence will protect our community for years to come.”

The victim was a casual acquaintance of Howell. She agreed to get into Howell’s truck and after driving around Healdsburg for some time, Howell drove the victim to a secluded area. Once there, Howell told her that he would kill her if she didn’t have sex with him. Howell had sex with the victim multiple times, eventually dropping her off across the street from her school. The victim reported the crime to law enforcement but did not know Howell’s true name. She underwent a sexual assault examination, where sperm was located and sent to the Department of Justice Laboratory for DNA analysis. Initial tests showed that although male DNA was recovered the identity of the donor of the DNA remained unknown.

In March 2007, the Department of Justice was able to identify Howell as the suspect in the case. Howell had provided DNA to the State of California when he was incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison for two unrelated bank robberies that occurred in 2005. Howell’s DNA sample was compared to the DNA samples recovered in 2004 and a computer match was made. Subsequent testing by DOJ confirmed those results.

Howell must serve 85% of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. Howell will also be required to register for life as a sex offender.

Deputy District Attorney Jason Riehl was the prosecutor assigned to the case. Sonoma County Sheriff’s Detective Greg Miller was the lead detective assigned.