One Plant City sexual assault victim learns identity of her attacker thanks to DNA match.
A 2015 victim of sexual battery has found justice after Tampa Police Department arrested 30-year-old Lakeland resident Leonel Sotelo Cortez for the crime.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 2015 at the 4100 block of West Highway 574 in Plant City, an adult woman reported to law enforcement officers that she had been sexually assaulted. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment from injuries sustained during the encounter, a news release from the Plant City Police Department (PCPD) said.
The suspect wasn’t found but evidence was collected and submitted for testing. This physical evidence revealed a DNA profile that was entered into the Department of Justice Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a computer network that connects forensic DNA laboratories at the local, State and National levels.
Deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known at DNA, is found in almost every cell of every living organism and like fingerprints, is so unique that each person has their own genetic code that tells everything about a human, from their eye color to their skin tone and height. Recent advancements in DNA analysis, together with computer technology and CODIS, have created a powerful crimefighting tool for law enforcement.
At that time, a match wasn’t found but DNA evidence has the power to determine truth 10, 15 or even 20 years after an offense is committed. Fast forward to October, 18, 2022, when PCPD received a CODIS match from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement belonging to Cortez.
Sergeant Baker, head of PCPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit, said the suspect’s DNA wasn’t in the database until ICE entered it in October 2022. “At that time a match was generated and we had to obtain a search warrant to compare it to the DNA on-file and then they had enough to issue the arrest warrant,” he said.
Although Chapter 775 of Florida Statutes sets time limits on when crimes can be prosecuted, updates were made to give time from the date on which the identity of the accused is established, through DNA evidence.
The arrest warrant was issued on Feb. 1 charging Cortez with one count of Sexual Battery Causing Injury (a felony), one count of False Imprisonment (a felony) and one count of Criminal Mischief (a misdemeanor). He was apprehended by the Tampa Police Department in Tampa on Feb. 2 and booked into the Falkenburg Road Jail and being held on $60,500 bond.
“The Plant City Police Department take investigations very seriously and while our goal is to effect an arrest as soon as possible, we realize some investigations take longer due to circumstances beyond our control,” said PCPD Captain Al Van Duyne. “For us, it’s important that although time has passed, we don’t rush and make as solid a case as possible so that the charges will remain and carry through to a conviction.”
Van Duyne gives credit to the multiple agencies that assisted with the case, including FDLE, ICE and TPD. “Our detectives have to work with other agencies to work and find resolutions and solve these cases,” he said.
