ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A man linked to two cold case sexual assaults from 2002 through DNA evidence has accepted a plea deal, bringing long-awaited justice for his victims.
Dwight Harris, once facing a life sentence, pleaded no contest in court Monday, securing a 15-year prison sentence with credit for time served. Upon release, he will be on five years of supervised probation and must register as a sexual predator.
Harris was arrested in 2021 after investigators used advanced DNA technology to link him to two sexual battery cases that had remained unsolved for nearly 20 years.
Authorities said Harris targeted women returning to their apartments, attacking them in nearby wooded areas.
“They thought this day would never come. They thought these were cold cases forever and that they would never be solved,” Orlando police Detective Graham Cage said.
One of Harris' victims addressed the court Monday, sharing the emotional toll the attack had taken on her life.
“Twenty years of fear, anger, and grief,” she said. “Now, 15 years of a prison sentence is a fraction of the time I have spent trying to live in the wreckage you left behind. Even now, I know the difference between us, I did not choose what happened to me, you did.”
Now a mother of two, she said she refuses to let Harris' actions define her.
Judge Diego M. Madrigal III acknowledged her bravery in speaking out.
“I just want to tell you how lucky your family is to have somebody like you,” he said. “You’re incredibly strong, incredibly brave, to come in here, even if it’s by video and share what you’ve been through for the last two decades.”
Orlando police said they are now preserving DNA evidence from sexual assault cases for 50 years, hoping advancements in technology will help bring justice in other unsolved cases.
Harris will remain in prison until at least 2036.
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