[naviga:img class="img-responsive" src="/Assets/img/news/a-perry-norwichPD.jpg" alt="" /]

Alexander S. Perry, 24, of Norwich, has been charged in a 2009 sexual assault in Norwich.Handout photo courtesy of the Norwich Police Department

Norwich — Police credit science with helping to identify a suspect in an assault and rape in Norwich that went unsolved for nearly six years. 

Alexander S. Perry, 24, of 320 Central Ave. was arrested on Thursday in connection with a 2009 sexual assault thanks in part to an “offender hit notification” of a DNA match sent to police from the state forensic lab. 

The sexual assault occurred in an alley behind a gas station on Central Avenue where a woman said she was beaten and forced to perform a sexual act. 

It was shortly after midnight on April 25, 2009, when the woman said a man had called to her from an alley. As she neared the man, she told police she saw he was exposing himself, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case. 

The man offered her crack or money in exchange for oral sex. When she refused, police said he grabbed her, punched her in the head and pushed her to the ground. While on the ground she said the man kicked her in the face and body. He then forced her to perform a sexual act. 

The woman was questioned by police at the time and told police she was not intoxicated, not trying to prostitute herself and was not looking for crack, though she admitted smoking it occasionally. She gave only a vague description of her attacker who had abruptly fled the scene. 

The victim was treated at The William W. Backus Hospital, where a nurse completed a sexual assault evidence kit. Included in the kit police sent to the state forensic lab was “dried secretions,” which appeared to be saliva from the suspect, obtained from the woman’s body. DNA was extracted from the secretions and entered in both the state and national databases. 

In Connecticut, anyone convicted of a felony must submit a DNA sample. State judicial records show that, along with misdemeanor convictions in Norwich, Perry was convicted on Nov. 20, 2014, in Hartford of first-degree escape, which is a Class C felony. 

Police said it was on Jan. 12, 2015, that they received word from the state crime lab that Perry’s DNA matched the DNA from the Norwich crime. Detective Timothy Rykowski was immediately assigned to the case. Officer Ken Wright found Perry walking on Central Avenue, where he was arrested without incident. 

Detective Sgt. Ed Peckham said the case was a “testament to the fact that the system works.” He credited the state crime lab with a fast return on the DNA hit. The lab recently announced it had successfully dug out of a mountain of backlogs that at one point had included 12,000 pieces of untested evidence at its facility in Meriden. Prosecutors and police say evidence testing by the lab is performed much faster than it has been in the recent past. 

Police charged Perry, with possible ties to the street gang Bloods, with first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, first-degree threatening and first-degree unlawful restraint. He remains held in prison in lieu of a $500,000 bond. A Judge in Norwich on Friday ordered a mental health evaluation and assigned a public defender to the case. No plea was entered during Perry’s brief court appearance. 

Perry is due back in court on Feb. 10.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay