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Man Wanted For Sexual Assaults In Maryland, DC Charged After Nine Years: DOJ

A man with a checkered criminal past has been charged with sexual assault in Washington, DC and Maryland, federal authorities announced.

The Minnesota Avenue Metro Station.

The Minnesota Avenue Metro Station.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Ben Schumin

District resident Dawayne Joseph Spriggs, 37, who also calls Prince George's County home in Maryland, was arraigned on a 2014 cold case involving a sexual assault involving a stranger at a DC Metro station in 2014.

According to court documents, on July 6, 2014, Spriggs approached a stranger near the Minnesota Avenue Metro station at approximately 1 a.m., following her before physically and sexually assaulting her in an alley.

Once the assault was over, the woman immediately called the police and a sexual assault exam was conducted.

At the time, the DNA was tested in the national database, but there were no hits.

Prosecutors say that two years later, the database reported a match between that DNA profile and a separate sexual offense that was reported in Maryland in 2013. 

Earlier this year, detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit identified Spriggs as a suspect, and his DNA was again tested and came up as a match for both the DC and Anne Arundel County incidents.

This cold case arrest comes on the heels of Samuel Peaks' arrest at 10 years after a similar assault at the same station.

Earlier this week, a grand jury indicted Spriggs in the DC cold case on multiple counts of first-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse. He is also currently charged in a separate criminal complaint in Anne Arundel County for unrelated offenses in Maryland.

If convicted, Spriggs faces up to 30 years in prison and a $125,000 fine, followed by at least five years of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

He is set to go to trial on Thursday, Oct. 12.

Check Daily Voice for updates.

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