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Inmate Linked By DNA To Unsolved Rapes Gets 35-Year Sentence

Alfred Berry Pleads Guilty To Six Counts Of Second-Degree Rape And Six Counts Of Second-Degree Kidnapping.
Orleans Parish District Attorney

A Louisiana prison inmate tied by DNA evidence to six rape cases from the 1980s has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reports 52-year-old inmate Alfred Berry was sentenced Friday in New Orleans.

He had been acquitted of two rape charges at a trial in 1988. At another trial that year, the jury deadlocked on a rape charge but convicted Berry of armed robbery. The judge gave him 99 years in prison, the maximum sentence.

Speaking at Friday's hearing, some of the women recalled how Berry appeared out of nowhere, raped and robbed them. One victim was held at gunpoint, another at knifepoint.

Berry pleaded guilty earlier this month to six counts of second-degree rape and six counts of second-degree kidnapping under a plea agreement.

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