DNA evidence links man to 2003 sexual assault of Austin woman in Arizona

AUSTIN, Texas - DNA evidence helped find the man responsible for the 2003 rape of a 19-year-old woman from Austin.

What we know:

The assault happened when Ashley Spence was in college at Arizona State.

A man came into her apartment in the middle of the night, covered her face with a pillow and nearly suffocated her. He sexually assaulted her, hit her in the face and threatened her. 

"He said, if you tell anybody, I will come back and kill you," Spence said."

The man then slipped away. Spence reported the assault and it was investigated, but no one was linked to the crime, leaving Spence living in fear.

"I would hear muffled screams of this guy's next victim in my head when I would try to go to bed at night because I knew he was out there, and I knew he wasn't stopping," Spence said.

Seven years later, police in California caught Kevin Lee Francois trying to break into a home with three college women inside. When police searched his home, they were shocked by what they found.

Francois was arrested, and his DNA was put into a national database. In 2015, that DNA from Francois was used to prove to a jury he was the one who assaulted Spence.

"They were able to prove in my trial that it was 38 trillion times more likely his DNA on me than anybody else," said Spence.

Francois was sentenced to 137 and a half years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Big picture view:

Currently, 31 states have enacted legislation to require DNA from certain felony arrestees and 19 states require DNA collection during all felony arrests, according to the DNA Justice Project.

California, at the time of Francois' arrest, did require DNA collection. Since his arrest, Arizona has started requiring DNA collection during certain felony arrests.

In Texas, HB 3956 mandates that booking facilities collect a DNA sample from all arrestees charged with a felony occurring on or after September 1, 2023, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

HB 3956 also requires the court to notify applicable law enforcement agencies who collect and receive the defendant’s sample if the defendant is acquitted of the crime or if the case is dismissed, at which point the sample and profiles will be expunged and all samples/records destroyed for the defendant in accordance with Government Code section 411.151(a).

What's next:

Now the FBI is looking into the use of rapid DNA, technology that would take about 90 minutes to eliminate or link someone to a crime.

Monday night's CrimeWatch will explore how this technology could help find potential new victims in the case of Raul Meza Jr.