Man sentenced in eight-year-old rape case

A Minneapolis man was sentenced to 16 years and four months in prison on Tuesday for the rape of a New Brighton woman in 2001.

Trinidad Perez-Carrino, 32, was convicted in August of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping, after police matched the man's DNA from an alleged sexual assault last year.

"Thanks to increasingly powerful DNA testing and criminal databases, we were able to successfully prosecute a defendant who committed a most heinous sex crime," said Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner in a statement. "I hope, as a result, that our community is safer, and that the victim has received some measure of justice and peace."

Eight years ago, New Brighton police arrived at an intersection in the middle of the night, after a woman reported that she and another woman had just escaped the car of an unknown man who offered to give them a ride home from a Minneapolis bar.

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The police officer who arrived saw a woman running across the street, wearing only a shirt, and bleeding from head and facial wounds, according to the criminal complaint. She reported that the man assaulted and raped her before he drove off.

Another woman at the scene also reported that she had been physically assaulted by the man. Police at the time were unable to locate the suspect.

Last November, the Minneapolis Police Department obtained a DNA sample from Perez-Carrino in connection with another criminal sexual conduct case. The DNA matched the sample obtained from the victim of the 2001 rape.

Perez-Carrino also faces a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge in Hennepin County in connection with the 2008 incident.