Indictments Followed Analysis of DNA Evidence
Alphonso Owens, 42, formerly of Washington, D.C., has been indicted by grand juries in the District of Columbia and Prince George’s County, Maryland for two separate home invasion sexual assaults of children that occurred in September and October of 2011.
The indictments were announced by Matthew M. Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Aisha N. Braveboy, State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, and Malik Aziz, Chief of the Prince George’s County, Maryland Police Department.
On July 27, 2022, Owens was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old child in a home invasion attack that occurred on Oct. 29, 2011. Earlier this week, on Oct. 11, 2022, he was indicted by a grand jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old child in a home invasion attack that occurred on Sept. 26, 2011.
Owens was indicted on multiple felony charges for both attacks.
In the District of Columbia, Owens was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances, and three counts of first-degree child sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances.
In Prince George’s County, he was charged with first-degree rape, second-degree assault, second-degree sex offense, third-degree sex offense, fourth-degree sex offense, and first-degree burglary.
Owens was linked to both attacks after an analysis of DNA evidence.
He was arraigned earlier today on the D.C. indictment in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.
The charges in the D.C. indictment carry a statutory maximum sentence of life without possibility of release. If found guilty, Owens would also be required to register as a Class A sex offender for up to the remainder of his lifetime.
The charges in the Prince George’s County indictment carry a statutory maximum sentence of life, with a mandatory minimum of 25 years, and lifetime sex offender registration.
According to the government’s evidence in the D.C. case, in the early morning hours of on Oct. 29, 2011, the 11-year-old child was sleeping in her family’s ground floor apartment in the Fort Stanton area of Southeast Washington when Owens entered through the victim’s bedroom window. He threatened to kill her if she yelled or screamed. As alleged, Owens sexually assaulted her and then fled back out the window. The victim immediately woke up her mother and reported the assault, and her mother called police.
Police believed that the offenses in the District of Columbia and Maryland may potentially have been related. Detectives with MPD’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit submitted the D.C. evidence for new DNA testing in 2020. DNA ultimately linked the defendant to both offenses. Owens was a stranger to both juvenile victims and their families.
Owens was convicted in 2016 of first-degree rape for a home invasion sexual assault that he committed in Baltimore in 2015 for which he is currently serving a sentence of 2x life + 25 years in Maryland.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.
The District of Columbia case is being investigated by detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit, Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit, Youth Investigations Division, and detectives and officers from the Seventh Police District. Those working on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office include Paralegal Specialist Cynthia Muhammad and Victim/Witness Advocate Lezlie Richardson. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Suttenberg investigated the D.C. case in 2011, and Assistant U.S. Amy Zubrensky, is investigating and prosecuting the D.C. case.
The Maryland case is being investigated by the Sexual Assault Unit of the Prince George’s County Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Monica Meyers of the State’s Attorney’s Office for Prince George’s County.
