Woman dragged into alley, sexually assaulted in 2001, CA officials say. Man sentenced
A man has been sentenced more than two decades after a woman was dragged into an alley and sexually assaulted, California prosecutors say.
John House, now 53, was given a 15 years to life prison sentence in relation to the 2001 sexual assault, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 5 news release.
The woman was walking in a San Diego neighborhood one late August morning in 2001 when a man approached her from behind, prosecutors said.
The man covered her mouth with his hand and “dragged her into an alley to have sex while threatening her with a knife,” prosecutors said.
Despite having DNA evidence at the time, technology was limited, and the San Diego Police Department Crime Laboratory could not create a DNA profile, according to prosecutors.
For decades, the case remained stagnant.
But then, in 2022 with the help of advancements in DNA technology, prosecutors said “there was a break in the case.”
The DNA evidence was retested and, this time, investigators were able to develop a full DNA profile, prosecutors said.
It was a match to House, according to prosecutors.
House was previously convicted in a separate 2001 criminal case, wherein he was accused of sexually battering five different female joggers, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for that case.
In November, after one day of deliberation, a jury found House guilty of forcible oral copulation and kidnapping in relation to the cold case sexual assault, according to prosecutors.
“The victim waited more than 20 years for this defendant to be brought to justice for his horrific kidnap and sexual assault,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said in the release.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Woman dragged into alley, sexually assaulted in 2001, CA officials say. Man sentenced."
