What to Know
- A Brooklyn man could spend up to 20 years in prison for raping a teenage girl at gunpoint in 1994, authorities say
- Franklin Gardner, 48, was sentenced Friday to 10 to 20 years in prison after he plead guilty to first-degree rape and other charges
- According to authorities, on Aug. 28, 1994, the victim, who was 15 years old at the time, was raped at gunpoint by Gardner
A Brooklyn man could spend up to 20 years in prison for raping a teenage girl at gunpoint in 1994, authorities say.
Franklin Gardner, 48, was sentenced Friday to an indeterminate sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison after he plead guilty in April to first-degree rape and related charges, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
Authorities were lead to Gardnerafter a DNA profile of alleged rapist was created in 2002 and he was indicted as John Doe two years later. After Gardner, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, was released from prison in 2015, he provided DNA that matched the sample recovered after the rape that took place years ago, the district attorney said.
According to the investigation, on Aug. 28, 1994, the victim, who was 15 years old at the time, was walking into her building at the Glenwood Houses in Flatlands, Brooklyn. As she was entering her apartment, Gardner allegedly forced her up to the roof at gunpoint and raped her. The teenager immediately told a neighbor and her parents. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where a sexual assault evidence collection kit was administered.
In 2002, the semen recovered when the rape kit was administered was tested as part of a backlog clearing project. According to authorities, a male DNA profile was generated.
Gardner’s DNA was not in the database and no match was found at the time, however, in 2004, the case was indicted with the defendant identified as John Doe to ensure that the statute of limitations did not expire. At this time, the statute of limitations on rape when the identity or whereabouts of the offender were unknown was 10 years until it was amended in 2006.
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In 2015, the defendant, as required by law, provided a DNA sample after serving a 20-year prison sentence in New Jersey for a carjacking he committed, authorities say, adding that the DNA matched the sample from the 1994 rape, which was stored in a database, and which lead to the arrest of Gardner.
