Man arrested in 2019 for rape nearly 40 years prior pleaded guilty Monday
BATON ROUGE - A man who was arrested in 2019 for a rape that occurred in 1981 pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
In 2019, WBRZ reported a woman who was kidnapped at gunpoint and raped Aug. 11, 1981 asked police to re-examine evidence from her attack.
A stain on the woman's pantyhose, still in evidence after 38 years, provided the rapist's DNA.
Donald Ray Dunn, 59, was arrested on aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping in the case, which pre-dates the development of DNA testing in criminal cases.
Dunn pleaded guilty to reduced charges Monday. Aggravated kidnapping was lowered to simple kidnapping and aggravated rape was lessened to forcible rape.
The woman was attacked as she was heading to visit a friend at Woman's Hospital. It was about 2:45 a.m., according to the arrest warrant.
She'd parked her car and was walking toward the hospital when a man in an olive green Ford Maverick approached her. He had a gun, and threatened to shoot her unless she got into his car.
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She pleaded with him not to take her, but he yanked her into the car. In that struggle, the rapist's gun fired, a bullet hitting his left arm. He drove away from the hospital as she begged for her life.
The attacker drove her to nearby Airway Drive and parked. He threatened to choke her if she didn't cooperate, and then raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to the warrant.
Then he made her bandage his injured arm. He drove back to the hospital and released her.
Police collected evidence from the victim and from the site of the assault on Airway. Investigators found blood on the woman's clothing that was not hers, and evidence of semen.
They worked to identify the rapist, but could not.