TULSA, Okla. – ATulsa County jury has found a Guyana man guilty of two counts of first-degree rape and recommended a sentence of life in prison plus 40 years. Prosecutors say Joshua DaCosta was in the United States illegally and was already serving a federal prison sentence for sexually abusing a child when DNA evidence linked him to the rapes, which happened years later.
Decades-old assaults finally resolved
The jury’s verdict follows a trial involving two victims whose cases went unsolved for more than a decade. Investigators say one victim was 14 years old at the time of the assault, while the second victim was 20.
The assaults occurred between 2008 and 2015. Tulsa County prosecutors say advances in DNA testing allowed investigators to connect DaCosta to both cases years later.
“These rapes happened years apart, and for a long time there were no answers,” said Lauren Crudup, supervisor of the Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney.
DNA evidence key to conviction
Crudup says sexual assault examination kits were critical in identifying DaCosta as the attacker, particularly because the victims did not know him…