MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) — Jancys Santiago was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for raping a college student in 2001, in the state’s first rape case to be indicted based on genealogy from DNA database.<\/p>\n
He will also serve five years post-release supervision and will be required to register as a sex offender.<\/p>\n
Santiago was tied to both the 2001 rape of a 21-year-old woman in the Bronx and a May 2000 rape of a 27-year-old woman in Manhattan by the cutting edge technology. He was convicted in the Bronx case in June.<\/p>\n
“This decision was more than 20 years in the making,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said.<\/p>\n
He was living in Groveland, Florida, when he was arrested, and extradited to New York to face charges in both cases.<\/p>\n
In the Bronx case, Santiago allegedly broke into a 21-year-old neighbor’s apartment while she was sleeping in Dec. 2001. He covered his victim’s face, bound her with a wire hanger, and raped her.<\/p>\n
“She survived and she is here with us today,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
Katy Vicchitto faced Santiago in court on Friday.<\/p>\n
“My experience as a survivor of a sexual assault affects every aspect of my life,” she said. “It is like a filter that every new physical and social experience goes through.”<\/p>\n
Investigators had no way of knowing that they were looking for the victim’s neighbor in her rape.<\/p>\n
The victim’s rape kit generated a donor profile that eventually matched the donor profile from Santiago’s Manhattan rape case, entered in 2005 and logged into the system as “John Doe.”<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, at the time the DNA profile could not be linked to a specifical individual and the identity of the assailant remained unknown for many decades. Over time, technology advanced,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office received a three-year $500,000 grant from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to reexamine this and other cold cases.<\/p>\n
“This process led investigators to only one man. Jancys Santiago,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
Santiago was sentenced last December to 20 years in prison, then five years of post-release supervision, in the Manhattan case.<\/p>\n
Vicchitto met the victim of that case, Sarah Clark, for the first time.<\/p>\n
“This process has been very difficult, but today’s sentence validates forensic science and the power of reporting and advocacy,” Vicchitto said.<\/p>\n
The two survivors, tied together by trauma, were united finally by justice and closure.<\/p>\n
“I hope this is only the beginning. One down. Hopefully thousands more to go,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
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