LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld a man's conviction of aggravated rape in a decades-old case.
The American Press reports 42-year-old Jonathan Jacito Frank was convicted in 2014 of raping a Lake Charles woman at knifepoint in her apartment in 1994.
He was sentenced then to life in prison and has since exhausted his appeals. His appeals have been repeatedly denied by judges who argue the case centered on DNA evidence that proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The woman reported the assault to police, and the case went cold until Frank pleaded guilty in 2003 to attempted rape in an unrelated case. Officials were then able to connect the imprisoned Frank to the 1994 rape with DNA collected from the assaulted women.