Published: June 25, 2007 10:38 pm      

CRIME: DNA helps get conviction on cold rape case

Convicted felon Bradberry nabbed after DNA links him to old LaSalle rape

It took less than an hour, and that included lunch.

In less than 60 minutes, a Niagara County Court jury concluded Monday afternoon that convicted killer Darren Bradberry was guilty of first-degree rape and second-degree burglary in an 1997 attack on a woman in the city’s LaSalle neighborhood that investigators called “horrific.”

“This was a case of a young, innocent girl, sleeping in her apartment, and this guys breaks in and rapes here,” said Falls Police Detective Patricia McCune, who investigated the case. “It’s every woman’s nightmare. It’s as bad as it gets.”

McCune said the case had haunted her for a decade because there was no suspect. Then, in 2005, Bradberry went to prison on a manslaughter conviction, and a stone cold case suddenly turned hot.

“When an offender is convicted of a crime, their DNA goes into a statewide database known as CODIS,” said Assistant District Attorney Claudette Antholzner, the prosecutor in the case. “Then it gets compared to evidence in unsolved crimes.”

When Bradberry’s DNA went into the database, there was an immediate connection to DNA evidence taken in the 1997 LaSalle rape.

“This is exactly what CODIS is for,” Antholzner said.

With the DNA match, investigators re-opened the rape investigation and indicted Bradberry. Antholzner said the normal five-year limit to brings charges in a rape case didn’t apply here because there was never an identifiable suspect.

“There is case law that says if we don’t have a suspect, we have five years from the time we got the (CODIS) match,” the prosecutor said.

McCune, who said she was pleased that “justice was served,” wasn’t the only person who had struggled with the lack of action in the case.

“(The victim) was thrilled that we found a suspect,” Antholzner said. “Obviously, she wasn’t thrilled with (the case) going to trial, but she was thrilled with the outcome.”

Antholzner said the DNA match was critical not only in identifying Bradberry as the suspect, but in convicting him, as well.

“It was the only direct link we had,” she said. “The victim never saw (Bradberry). He put a pillow case over her head.”

Falls Police Detective Capt. Ernest Palmer said new technology breakthroughs are closing cases that once seemed unsolvable.

“It shows you the potential with DNA,” Palmer said. “Chalk one up for the good guys.”

In May 2005, with a trial jury almost selected, Bradberry decided to cop a plea to a single count of first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of James Fadel on Oct. 13, 2004. he had faced two counts of second-degree murder and one count each of third-degree burglary and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Bradberry is serving an 18-year prison term for that conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced on the rape and burglary charges Sept. 11.

Fadel, known to his friends and family as “Jimbo” and to the kids on a local little league team as “Coach,” was shot outside his father’s bar, Norm’s, at 1951 Niagara St., in the early morning hours of Oct. 13. He was trying to stop Bradberry, who was in the process of robbing the bar.

Witnesses said Bradberry pulled out a gun and shot Fadel once in the chest.

“He committed a violent rape in 1997, and then his violence escalated to murder in 2005,” McCune said. “But then it was the aftermath of the murder that brought us back to the rape. Then we got him. He’s a dangerous man who should never see the light of day again.”

Contact reporter Rick Pfeifferat 282-2311, ext. 2252.