The victim was getting ready for work in her apartment when she heard a knock at the door. It was a black man claiming to be her upstairs neighbor and requesting to use the phone. The victim let him into her apartment. The man then stole the money from her purse, tied a scarf around the victim, and sexually assaulted her. Anthony Hicks was stopped a few days after the crime on a traffic violation and turned into a suspect when someone in jail thought he looked like the police sketch.

Five hairs were recovered from the bedroom in the victim's apartment. The hairs were from an African-American and the victim testified that she had never had a black man in her house before the incident and the last black woman to be in her house was there over a year ago. Hair comparison showed that the hair found at the scene was consistent with the defendant's hair. All original DNA testing done on the hairs was inconclusive due to insufficient sample size. There was not enough sperm found for testing. All serology testing results were inconclusive.

Hicks eventually secured access to the evidence and had it subjected to DNA testing. One of the roots of one of the hairs yielded enough DNA to obtain a profile, which excluded Hicks.