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OGDEN -- 14 years after the crime, a man is behind bars at the Weber County Jail facing charges in the rape of a woman behind Mount Ogden Junior High in 1997.
A DNA sample in the Arkansas prison system database from 42-year-old Sergio Arturo Hernandez matched crime scene DNA, Ogden Police Lt. Troy Burnett confirmed.
Hernandez is accused of attacking a woman behind the junior high on Jan. 23, 1997 and sexually assaulting her. He was booked on aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony.
"For somebody to finally have justice - have their opportunity to receive justice - in a case like this, I think it's great," Burnett said.
A patrolman at the time, Burnett was one of the responding officers to the crime.
"I'm only disappointed that it took 14-years to do it, but I'm glad it's finally being done," Burnett said.
I'm only disappointed that it took 14-years to do it, but I'm glad it's finally being done.
–Lt. Troy Burnett
Though police have been gathering DNA samples at crime scenes for a long time, Burnett said technology developed over the last several years has made it much easier to solve cases like these.
The cold case rape arrest is the second in a little over a month in Ogden.
Hernandez arrest follows another recent cold case arrest in Ogden. 39-year-old Deon Lucero was charged last month with the Aug. 29, 1996, rape of a woman in a back room of the "Afterthoughts" store at the Newgate Mall.
Police in that case were able to match crime scene DNA with a sample on file in the Mississippi prison system.
Burnett called the proximity of the two arrests "coincidental" and not related to any sort of focus on cracking cold cases. He said detectives are constantly working to solve older crimes.
