Ricardo Rachell was convicted in 2003 of a Houston child sexual assault he didn’t commit. Although DNA testing was available at the time of his arrest and a sample was collected from Rachell, no testing was conducted before his trial. He served more than five years before DNA testing proved his innocence and led to his release on December 12, 2008.

The Crime

On Sunday, October 20, 2002, an eight-year-old boy reported that a man had offered him ten dollars to pick up trash, and had taken him away on his bike. He was taken to a vacant house and sexually assaulted. The boy’s six-year-old friend was present when the perpetrator approached the victim, and he told the police that the suspect was a black man, about 30 years old. This was the only description provided in the offense report.

The Investigation

The next day, the victim’s mother saw a man who she believed might be her son’s assailant. When the mother asked her son if this was the assailant, he responded that it was. Police were summoned, and the man, Ricardo Rachell, was placed in a patrol car. The boy identified him again, and described the attack—a man had taken him to a vacant house, pulled down his pants, and held him from behind. 

Later, in an interview with the sex crimes division, the boy described his attacker as a black man with no teeth and a deformed eye. Rachell was known in the neighborhood for his facial deformity. Both the victim and his friend identified Rachell from a photo spread. 

Rachell voluntarily gave police a sample of his DNA, and denied committing the crime. He repeatedly urged prosecutors (and his own attorney) to look into similar attacks on children in his neighborhood. In these attacks, children under the age of ten were coerced with offers of money by a man on a bicycle, taken to a vacant house and molested, then threatened with knives or box cutters. According to newspaper accounts, these attacks continued after Rachell was arrested.

The Trial

At trial, the prosecution relied on the eyewitness testimony of the two children. They also used the testimony of the mother, saying that she had suspected Rachell because he matched her son’s description of his assailant.

Rachell’s DNA was never compared to that taken from the boy’s underwear or rape kit. In his closing arguments, Rachell’s lawyer argued that it could have been tested but was not. However, at no time before or during the trial did Rachell’s lawyer request that his client’s DNA be compared to the biological evidence from the rape kit or clothing.

On June 3, 2003, Rachell was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Post-Conviction

In prison, Rachell continued to profess his innocence, often sending police newspaper clippings from 2002 and 2003 describing continuing attacks on children in his neighborhood. His appeals were denied, and his new court-appointed attorney failed to file the request that would result in DNA tests on the biological evidence. However, an Assistant District Attorney obtained affidavits and secured DNA testing in March 2008.

On October 28, 2008, the DNA results came in, and Rachell’s DNA did not match that from the sample collected in the case. Two months later, the DNA from the case was matched to another man—who had previously plead guilty to sexually assaulting several children. 

On December 12, 2008, Ricardo Rachell was freed from prison. He was officially exonerated on January 14, 2009. The true perpetrator has since been convicted of the crime.