DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) – A Dauphin County jury has convicted a man for kidnapping and raping an unconscious woman.
Ronald Jenkins, formerly of Harrisburg, was convicted after police charged him in connection to an incident that occurred on Feb. 14-15, 2017.
On February 15, 2017, a 27-year-old woman reported to Swatara Township Police that she had awoken at the Roadway Inn naked from the waist down and had no idea how she had gotten to the motel.
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She explained to the police that her last memory was from the night before when she was at her home in Lower Paxton Township with Jenkins (a family friend) and her husband.
An investigation by Lower Paxton Police Detective Gregory Langley revealed that the woman was attacked after her husband went to bed that night. She testified before the jury that Jenkins struck her in the face and slammed her body into a wall causing a hole in the wall.
The victim said she had no recollection after that until waking up in the motel room occupied by the Jenkins.
Police were able to secure surveillance from the motel showing Jenkins carrying the victim’s lifeless body being carried into the room over his shoulder.
During telephone calls between Jenkins and the woman’s husband, intercepted by the police, Jenkins repeatedly asserted that nothing happened in the motel room, referring to himself as an “innocent bystander”.
In late 2018, police received results from the Pennsylvania State Police DNA Laboratory which matched the Jenkins DNA profile with DNA obtained using swabs taken from the victim at the hospital.
Jenkins was apprehended in New Jersey in July 2019.
Jenkins faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison because he has a prior conviction for a felony crime of violence, specifically aggravated assault. Judge William T. Tully set sentencing for March 31, 2022, and increased Jenkins’ bail to $100,000.