Villa Park man guilty of 2006 rape attempt
A man whose DNA linked him to a five-year-old rape attempt in Villa Park pleaded guilty Tuesday.
Juan Rivera-Rodriguez, 37, was linked to the crime last year while imprisoned on a felony traffic case. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the Aug. 25, 2006, attack on the 300 block of North Princeton Avenue.
Prosecutors said Rivera-Rodriguez entered the victim’s first-floor apartment through a window, undressed, and began kissing the woman as she slept on a couch early that morning.
“When she opened her eyes, she realized there was a stranger lying naked on top of her,” Assistant State’s Attorney Romas Mockaitis said.
The would-be rapist fled when the victim, then 24, faked a severe asthma attack and said she would die without an inhaler, prosecutors said.
The victim and her husband later found a shirt smelling of the attacker’s “strong body odor” in a bedroom closet, Mockaitis said. The victim also gave a detailed description of the suspect for a police composite sketch.
The case went uncharged until last year, when DNA taken from the inside collar of the shirt left behind was matched to Rivera-Rodriguez. By then, he had been sent to prison for repeatedly driving with a suspended license, and his DNA was on file in a database of felony offenders.
Investigators also found the defendant’s fingerprint on a window frame at the victim’s home, less than a mile away from his own, prosecutors said.
Rivera-Rodriguez was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday but instead pleaded guilty to home invasion and attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault. He faces six to 30 years in prison and is likely to be deported upon his release, authorities said.
Judge Kathryn Creswell set sentencing for December.
The case highlighted a 2002 law written by former DuPage State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett requiring all felons to submit blood, saliva or tissue samples to a statewide database.
As of June 30, that database had grown to include more than 400,000 profiles, according to Illinois State Police.