Rasp
Senior Editor
Syrian strangled, raped unconscious woman
Man goes to trial for Ffld. attack
BRIDGEPORT — More than four years after a Fairfield woman was raped and nearly strangled in her home, a Syrian resident goes on trial tomorrow for the 2003 crime.
Police investigators, using a new kind of DNA test and assisted by an FBI profiler, filed the charges on which Anas Hourani will be tried before a Superior Court jury.
The 24-year-old Hourani, of Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield, is charged with attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault, aggravated first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison by Judge Lawrence Hauser.
According to police, Hourani broke into the woman's apartment on
Overlook Avenue in Fairfield on the night of Jan, 3, 2003. He put a plastic tie around the sleeping woman's neck and choked her until she passed out, police said. He then raped her, police said.
The woman was unable to identify her attacker or even recall what happened because of oxygen deprivation. Even hypnosis failed to restore her memory of the attack.
The case went unsolved until April 2007 when Fairfield Detective Kerry Dalling consulted with then-FBI Profiler William Hagerty Jr. and he gave her an idea of the type of person who could have committed the crime.
That "profile" matched Houran, who police said had been caught in February 2006 peeping into windows at the Pods Apartments on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield. Police said Hourani claimed he was only looking in windows of the apartments because he was interested in buying the place. But they said they did persuade him to give them a DNA sample, claiming they wanted to eliminate him as a suspect i
n a string of burglaries in the area.
Initially, police said they were not able to match Hourani's DNA to sperm from the rape victim. However, State Police forensic scientists re-tested Hourani's DNA in September 20006 using a new test that extracts the sample's Y chromosome which only men have, and comparing that chromosome to those found in a DNA sample from the sperm.
This time, Hourani's DNA was found to be a match, police said.
Neither Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly nor Hourani's lawyer, Richard Silverstein, would comment on the case.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Man goes to trial for Ffld. attack
BRIDGEPORT — More than four years after a Fairfield woman was raped and nearly strangled in her home, a Syrian resident goes on trial tomorrow for the 2003 crime.
Police investigators, using a new kind of DNA test and assisted by an FBI profiler, filed the charges on which Anas Hourani will be tried before a Superior Court jury.
The 24-year-old Hourani, of Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield, is charged with attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault, aggravated first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison by Judge Lawrence Hauser.
According to police, Hourani broke into the woman's apartment on
Overlook Avenue in Fairfield on the night of Jan, 3, 2003. He put a plastic tie around the sleeping woman's neck and choked her until she passed out, police said. He then raped her, police said.
The woman was unable to identify her attacker or even recall what happened because of oxygen deprivation. Even hypnosis failed to restore her memory of the attack.
The case went unsolved until April 2007 when Fairfield Detective Kerry Dalling consulted with then-FBI Profiler William Hagerty Jr. and he gave her an idea of the type of person who could have committed the crime.
That "profile" matched Houran, who police said had been caught in February 2006 peeping into windows at the Pods Apartments on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield. Police said Hourani claimed he was only looking in windows of the apartments because he was interested in buying the place. But they said they did persuade him to give them a DNA sample, claiming they wanted to eliminate him as a suspect i
n a string of burglaries in the area.
Initially, police said they were not able to match Hourani's DNA to sperm from the rape victim. However, State Police forensic scientists re-tested Hourani's DNA in September 20006 using a new test that extracts the sample's Y chromosome which only men have, and comparing that chromosome to those found in a DNA sample from the sperm.
This time, Hourani's DNA was found to be a match, police said.
Neither Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly nor Hourani's lawyer, Richard Silverstein, would comment on the case.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.