Source: Office of United States Attorneys
WASHINGTON –Samuel Peaks, 36, of Washington, D.C., has been found guilty by a jury, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of one count of first degree sexual abuse while armed with aggravating circumstances for a February 12, 2013 assault of a stranger in the 4400 block of Gault Place, NE, announced U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Sentencing is scheduled in front of Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz for May 2, 2025. Peaks faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
According to the government’s evidence that was presented at trial, at approximately 6:00 a.m., on February 12, 2013, Peaks encountered the victim at the Minnesota Ave. Metro and tried to speak with her. The victim rejected his advances and walked away. The defendant followed her, brandished a gun, forced her to put a condom on his penis, and perform a sexual act on him. Peaks threw the condom on the ground afterward. The victim immediately reported to police, who responded and recovered the condom.
The condom was timely tested for DNA in 2013 and resulted in a mixture of DNA from the victim and an unknown male. The case was pending without an identification of a suspect until the defendant was arrested for an attempted homicide in Maryland in 2020, where his DNA was collected pursuant to Maryland’s DNA upon arrest law and entered into CODIS.
The defendant’s DNA was compared to the male profile from the seized condom developed in the 2013 DNA testing and was determined to be a match.
This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The case was investigated by Assistant United States Attorney Amy Zubrensky and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Folse and Raha Mokhtari, of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section.