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SALT LAKE CITY – An accused serial rapist at the center of a KSL Investigation is facing additional sexual assault charges.
Salt Lake County prosecutors filed felony rape and sodomy charges against Joshua Homer, 27, this week, based on assaults reported to have occurred in 2014.
Charging documents state a woman reported she was 17 when she met Homer – who was 18 at the time – on a dating app. The woman reported incidents in a park and in a car with Homer in which she said he ignored her expressions of non-consent.
According to the probable cause statement, the woman reported Homer tried to assault her again after he drove her to her mother's home, but she was able to get away.
"Following the assaults, the defendant sent (the woman) a message about 'wasting his gas,'" an investigator with the State Bureau of Investigation wrote.
In 2020, Utah women started sharing allegations of sexual assault against Homer under the hashtag: #UtahRapists. The movement caught the attention of investigators with Utah's State Bureau of Investigation, which confirms it received more than 25 claims of sexual assault against Homer.
Most of those accusers were connected with local police departments to potentially file reports, but several were investigated by the bureau.
"I think sexual assaults are some of the most severely violent kinds of trauma that somebody can undergo," said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
Gill said his office filed the latest case against Homer after an accuser came forward in December last year. He noted the several-year delay in the woman's report to law enforcement did not deter his office from bringing charges and said he is confident prosecutors can prove the case at trial.
"To not only this survivor, to any other survivor who may find themselves in a similar situation, don't lose hope," Gill said. "There is a community of support out here in our society. Reach into that."
To not only this survivor, to any other survivor who may find themselves in a similar situation, don't lose hope.
–Sim Gill, Salt Lake County district attorney
In a message to the KSL Investigators Thursday reacting to the filing of the case, the woman said she is grateful to those who listened to her and, "this gives me and so many others the biggest sense of peace."
The newly filed case marks the fifth rape charge filed against Homer since the KSL Investigators started reporting on allegations against him in December last year. Homer is also currently facing four counts of rape in Davis County in a case that was filed after a KSL Investigation prompted investigators to re-open several rape cases naming Homer.
In October 2022, Joshua Homer pleaded guilty in two cases involving unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He was sentenced to spend just nine days in jail. Homer was arrested for multiple probation violations the day after the KSL Investigators' first report on him aired in December. He is now serving a zero-to-five-year prison sentence in that case.
Homer is scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Salt Lake County next week.
If you have experienced sexual violence, you can access help and resources by calling Utah's 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 1-801-736-4356 (English) or 1-801-924-0860 (Spanish). You can also call the Rape Recovery Center office line during office hours at 801-467-7282 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for free, confidential counseling.
