Prosecutors may team up in rapes case
DNA tests linked man to series of sex assaults in Forsyth and Guilford
By Titan Barksdale
JOURNAL REPORTER
Thursday, December 15, 2005


Prosecutors in Forsyth and Guilford counties could work together in prosecuting a man who has been charged with several counts of rape in the Triad, District Attorney Tom Keith of Forsyth County said yesterday.

Prosecutors may present details of the crimes committed in the counties at both trials, Keith said.

Gilberto Cruz Hernandez, 24, has been arrested on those charges and on a string of other sexual assaults in Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point. Hernandez is being held in the Forsyth County Jail with his bond set at $3 million.

Rules of evidence allow for prosecutors to present details of charg-es against a defendant, Keith said. Whether evidence of crimes is admissible depends on whether the crimes "are sufficiently similar and not so remote in time that they are more probative than prejudicial," according to an N.C. Supreme Court ruling.

"If you did a similar crime with a similar modus operandi in Wake, when I tried the case here, I can also bring in those similar attributes from Wake County so a jury would know," Keith said. "If it's really prejudicial to the defendant, it won't be admitted. It's not fair in some circumstance to let prior acts of misconduct in, so there's a balancing test that the courts must do."

Winston-Salem police charged Hernandez in Winston-Salem on Oct. 28 after DNA evidence tested at the state's crime labs linked him to a series of rapes that happened in February in Winston-Salem, a police statement said.

A few days later, he was charged in connection with three sexual-assault cases that occurred in Greensboro in January and February of this year and in May 2004.

A woman then told police in November that a masked man raped her at the Commercial Plaza Apartments in Winston-Salem, which was the scene of a sexual assault in February in which police charged Hernandez.

A conviction of first-degree rape carries a minimum sentence of between 16 years to 20 years in prison, Keith said. In Forsyth, plea offers are not generally offered in cases similar to Hernandez's.

Paul James, an assistant public defender who represents Hernandez, said that Hernandez maintains his innocence. James said he is likely to work with the attorney who represents Hernandez in Guilford.

"The only plea entry Mr. Hernandez has made is not guilty," James said. "We have not seen anything from the state about alleged DNA evidence. We have not seen anything from that state about a match, and eventually they'll have to put up or shut up."

Hernandez is to appear in Guilford Superior Court on Jan. 11 and in Forsyth Superior Court on Feb. 24.

• Titan Barksdale can be reached at 727-7369 or at tbarksdale@wsjournal.com