COLUMBUS – A man suspected in connection with a series of sexual assaults on the West Side was arrested Thursday after the Columbus police crime lab linked DNA evidence from the most-recent assault to his genetic profile.
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The arrest of Eric A. Pearce-Robinson, 19, comes a week after sexual assault squad detectives announced that they were looking into the string of attacks in an area east of Westgate Park bounded by West Broad Street, Glenwood Avenue and Sullivant Avenue.
Pearce-was free on bond while awaiting trial on other felony charges, court records show.
Pearce-Robinson was arrested at his home in the 1100 block of McCarley Drive East about 2:00 p.m. Thursday by Columbus SWAT officers and has been charged with one count of rape
He was one of the suspects from a violent sexual assault which occurred on May 19 in the area of Sullivant Avenue and South Burgess Avenue (see map), police said.
Police believed at the time that the attack was linked to two others.
Sgt. David Pelphrey said detectives are trying to identify the other men involved. Forensic testing of evidence is ongoing, he said.
“This is one of at least three suspects,” he said. He said detectives hadn’t interviewed Pearce-Robinson.
Pearce-Robinson’s DNA profile was already on file with the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Pelphrey said. In Ohio, DNA samples collected at crime scenes and from convicted felons and felony arrestees are entered into the database for comparison.