Police: Sex assault cold case solved after 24 years

Suspect arrested using DNA, police say

BERKELEY >> Berkeley police say they have solved a 24-year-old cold case involving the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy.

Kevin Leroy Davis, 59, of

Ohio has been charged with the crime after DNA evidence found in 1997 linked him to it, according to police. Davis, a Texas jail inmate when the connection was made, was extradited to Santa Rita Jail last month.

In 1997, Berkeley police investigated the sexual assault of a teenage boy who reported meeting a man near Telegraph Avenue. The man, since identified as Davis, offered the teen some marijuana and a drive home. But during the ride through the Berkeley Hills, Davis asked the boy for sexual acts, which the youth declined, according to police.

Davis mentioned he had a gun and threatened to shoot the teen, then sexually assaulted him, according to police. The boy later managed to escape from the car and call for help on Shasta Road.

The case went cold with no additional leads for more than two decades, until it was reopened in May 2020. It was then that the DNA profile was found to match Davis, who was imprisoned in Travis County, Texas. The victim identified Davis as the assailant in a lineup, according to court documents.

Davis has been charged with one count of sodomy by use of force and a special allegation of sexual assault during a kidnapping. He has eight convictions from 1986 to November

2020 in both Ohio and Texas, including felonious assault, grand theft and felony theft, according to court documents.

He remains in custody in Santa Rita Jail without bail and is scheduled to appear in court next week for a plea hearing.