Unsolved cold cases: A Columbus man was convicted of killing two women in the 1990s (Photo: 10tv.com)
Authorities said DNA evidence connected a guy to the cold-case slayings of two women in Ohio in the 1990s, and he was ultimately found guilty of the crimes.
According to a published article from AP News, following the use of DNA evidence by the prosecution, Franklin County jurors found Robert Edwards guilty of the 1996 rape and murder of Michelle Dawson Pass and the 1991 homicide of Alma Renee Lake, both of which occurred in the Columbus region.
When Robert Edwards is sentenced on August 9, a life sentence is unavoidable.
The identification of a suspect was not made until DNA from a relative became available and the state attorney general’s office informed county prosecutors in 2021 that Robert Edwards might be a suspect, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Prosecutors were unable to link the deaths until 2003 using DNA evidence
According to a report given by U.S News, on Friday, jurors found Robert Edwards, 68, guilty of killing Lake, 30, and of aggravated murder, murder, and rape in the death of Dawson-Pass, 36. In Lake’s case, he was found not guilty of aggravated murder.
The defendant allegedly also sexually assaulted Lake, but the prosecution chose not to pursue the defendant with that offense due to a 30-year statute of limitations.
The prosecution’s use of DNA evidence, along with their justifications that Robert Edwards had sex with both women and that their bodies were discovered close to where he lived in each case, were insufficient to establish that the defendant killed the victims, according to the defense attorneys.
In his closing remarks on Thursday, Vincent Watkins of the county public defender’s office suggested that Robert Edwards might have had sex with the victims a few days earlier. According to Watkins, the prosecution’s “entire case is what are the odds” that this was a coincidence.
Deputies: DNA links a man to the 1990s murders of women who were discovered naked and assaulted (Photo: ABC 6)
It is “so inconceivable, so astronomically unlikely for this to happen once to (Robert Edwards) and then happen again to (Robert Edwards),” according to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor David Zeyen.
Robert Edwards did not give a testimony, but jurors could hear him accusing officials of framing him and using his DNA as evidence in a phone call from August 2022 that the prosecution aired.
Regina Dawson of Rochester, New York, informed the newspaper that Michelle was her mother and described her as a lovely, family-oriented, spiritual woman who enjoyed dancing and hair braiding.
She admitted that watching the trial and viewing images of her mother’s corpse was distressing for her.
