Man charged in second rape case
A man denounced as a “serial rapist” has been charged in a second sexual assault after DNA testing connected him to multiple crimes.
Dayvante Raquan Sterns, 21, was charged Monday in a previously unsolved 2017 case, following his October arrest in another rape, according to a court affidavit. Both cases involve young women sexually assaulted by a stranger in their apartments.
Sterns, of Oklahoma City, is facing three counts of first-degree rape, two counts of forcible oral sodomy, burglary, and assault and battery. He is already in the Oklahoma County jail on rape, robbery, kidnapping and other counts stemming from an Oct. 11 sexual assault. District Attorney David Prater said Sterns likely has attacked more people.
“We believe he is a serial rapist, and he's probably raped others, just unreported,” Prater said. “This guy's incredibly violent.
“I encourage anyone who has been sexually assaulted to report it, whether they believe it's this person or not.”
Investigators conducted a DNA comparison after noticing similarities between the October rape and another from August 2017, Prater said. The test revealed Sterns' DNA matched evidence collected in the 2017 victim's sexual assault exam, police reported.
Both rapes occurred in the same apartment complex in southeast Oklahoma City. Sterns' mother and aunt were also reported to live in the area, according to court documents.
The first victim told police she came home from work about 1:30 a.m., and a man already inside her apartment rushed at her with a knife, according to the affidavit. The man cut her hand, covered her eyes with a blindfold and sexually assaulted her for about three hours, police said.
Features of the assault reflect an Oct. 11 rape of a 25-year-old woman. Oklahoma City police said the attacker pulled a knife on the woman after she let him borrow her cellphone and use her bathroom.
He raped her before leaving the apartment with her debit card and a video game console, police reported. The woman said he told her not to report the incident or he would “find her and kill her like the last girl he had raped,” according to a court affidavit.
Sterns was charged with additional counts of burglary and assault and battery in another attack Oct. 11 less than a mile away.
A 21-year-old woman said a man rushed into her apartment on Sunnylane Road and attacked her with a knife, police said. The woman bit the man on his hand and fought him off, according to court documents. He fled the scene, leaving the knife behind.
Sterns has also been charged in a separate 2018 robbery case.