DNA evidence and a photo array have cracked a horrific 11-year-old rape case, police say.
In the wee hours of March 21, 2000, a local woman had just returned home from visiting her brother in the hospital. After putting her kids to bed and hanging up some clothes, she noticed a light was on and heard some noises coming from her kitchen. When she went to investigate, according to court documents, she found the ogreish Robert Flores there, clad only in a pair of socks and clutching a knife. (Flores was a stranger to his victim then.)
The woman lunged for the knife and cut herself in the process. According to a probable cause report, Flores then told her that if she continued to resist, the kids would wake up and he would kill them. The woman then complied with his demands.
The report states that Flores then got behind her, held the knife to her throat and marched her to the bedroom of one of her kids, where he forced her to disrobe and raped her.
The woman called police after her attacker left, and they were able to get a DNA sample. Eleven years later a match was found -- Flores, now 38 years old and an inmate in San Antonio's Dominguez State Jail. Police then presented the woman with a photo array and she positively identified Flores as her attacker.
According to court records, Flores once lived across the street from the West Alabama Icehouse and has a lengthy Harris County rap sheet. (Other records show an address on Branard Street nearby.)
In 1990, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for a crack conviction, but was out on the streets again by 1993, when he was busted for indecent exposure. Two years later he was popped for assault, for which he did 70 days in the county jail.
In March of this year, the 5-5, 282-pounder was convicted of dealing meth and cocaine and sentenced to 15 years in prison, where his DNA was evidently taken. And now it looks like he probably won't be getting out of there for a hell of a lot longer than that -- he is charged with first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault.
