LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas man has been arrested and is facing charges related to two Texas cold cases from the 1990s.
According to the Denton Police Department, one incident happened on Oct. 21, 1991. A 15-year-old girl reported that while she was waiting at a park for other members of her cross-country team, she was sexually assaulted. The second incident happened on Sept. 17, 1997 when a woman said she was walking through the same park and was also sexually assaulted. Police said interviews with the survivors indicated the cases were related.
In 1998, the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab reports indicated DNA collected in both cases could have come from the same source. However, there were no hits when it was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, which is also known as CODIS. Police said they've continued to enter that DNA into the system looking for hits since 1999.
Earlier this year, police did a statewide DNA search and found "reasonable probability" the unknown suspect was related to an offender that was already in the criminal justice system. Based on those results, they identified 53-year-old Marcus Deshaun Johnson as a person of interest. Texas police said while looking into his criminal history, they found he had been arrested on unrelated warrants in Denton in 1993. He also matched the suspect description by both survivors.
When Denton police found out Johnson was living in Las Vegas, they contacted the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for help. Investigators working together were able to get a DNA sample from Johnson, which "could not be excluded as a contributor" to the samples collected in 1993 and 1997.
On June 29, 2023, Johnson was indicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual assault. Denton County jail records show he posted bond on July 26.
