Editorials

The Berkeley Police Department announced Wednesday it has solved a months-old Berkeley rape case, with help from the California Department of Justice’s criminal DNA database. 

Last May 15, a woman was raped at East Campus, Berkeley High’s continuation school, on the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Derby Street. 

The woman was walking in the neighborhood early that morning when she noticed that two men were tailing her. The men forced the victim into an unlocked bathroom at the school and proceeded to rape and physically assault her. 

The victim knew one of the men, Marcel Jarvis of Berkeley. Jarvis was arrested soon after being identified. 

The second suspect remained unidentified until Oct. 1, when DNA samples left at the scene were compared with information in the California Department of Justice’s Convicted Felon data bank. 

The comparison resulted in a “cold hit.” The DNA sample found the crime scene matched the profile of Ronald Odell Coleman, also of Berkeley, a convicted sex offender then in custody at Santa Rita Jail. 

Another DNA test was performed on Coleman, and the results were confirmed. 

The Alameda County district attorney’s office charged Coleman with the kidnapping and rape of the woman on Jan. 22. 

Seventy-seven crimes have been cracked by Convicted Felon Data Bank cold hits since the bank was established in 1994, according to Manuel Valencia, spokesman for the California Department of Justice. 

Contact reporter Hank Sims at hank@berkeleydailyplanet.net.