Patrick Avila, 37, of Attleboro has been indicted by a Bristol County Grand Jury on a charge of rape of a child with force in connection to the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Fairhaven in October of 2001.
 
Avila, who was initially charged earlier this year in Juvenile Court due to his age at the time of the crime, had his case transferred to adult court by a Juvenile Court Judge after a Transfer Hearing was held in September.  Since that time, the grand jury indicted him.  He was arraigned in Fall River Superior Court Tuesday afternoon and posted $10,000 cash bail.  He is due back in court February 7th

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On October 26, 2001, the victim went to a school dance where she later met up with a 17 year old named Brandon St. Don, who was known to her.  At some point during the evening, the victim left the dance with St. Don and went to a location where he provided her with alcoholic mixed drinks.   After drinking this drink, she became dizzy and felt like passing out.

 

 St. Don then took her to a friend’s home on Delano Street, telling her he was taking her to “a safe place.”  They eventually arrived at his friend’s house, at which point he dragged her into a car where she blacked out.  While she was unconscious in the car, a witness observed St. Don inside the vehicle raping the victim, who was now stripped naked.  

 

The witness was upset upon seeing St. Don with the victim, whom he knew to be a child.  Upon seeing this, the witness pulled St. Don off of the victim and punched him and forced St. Don to leave the property. Hearing this commotion caused the victim to regain consciousness.  When she did, the victim realized that she was cold and naked.  The witness gave the victim clothes and helped her to his basement where he allowed her to sleep.  Patrick Avila was also present when the victim was discovered naked in the car with St. Don and when she was assisted by the witness into the house.

 

Based upon witness statements and other evidence, St. Don was charged at the time with the girl's rape. He was later convicted and served a state prison sentence.  Although the victim did submit to a rape kit following the incident, that kit was one of several thousand from throughout the state that was never fully tested by the state lab.

 

The rape kit was also one of more than 1,100 from Bristol County alone that was never fully tested by the state lab. However, after our office became aware of the scope and breadth of the problem with untested rape kits throughout the state, we took action to obtain a federal grant. We then began the painstaking process of inventorying and prioritizing all untested rape kits in our county, and are now in the process of getting all 1,148 previously untested Bristol County rape kits fully tested by a private lab under the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant obtained by District Attorney Quinn in 2019. 

 

As part of DA Quinn's Untested Rape Kit initiative, this previously untested rape kit was recently fully tested by a private lab. The testing revealed that Avila’s DNA (i.e. sperm cells) was found on the oral swabs from the rape kit.  The victim has indicated that although she knew who Avila was at that time, she did not have any relationship with him, has no memory of seeing him that night, and never consented to any sexual contact with Avila.  

When recently advised that there was evidence of sexual contact with Avila on that date, the victim was shocked and upset.  It is now alleged that defendant Avila sexually assaulted the young victim in the basement after she had already been raped by St. Don.

 

Avila's DNA had been uploaded into CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) in 2010 as a result of a felony conviction.  If the victim's rape kit had been fully tested, this defendant would have been arrested and charged in connection with this incident 12 years ago.  Furthermore, if District Attorney Quinn had not undertaken this initiative and brought this issue to light statewide, the kit would likely never have been fully tested and the case would have remained unsolved.  This is now the fourth cold case rape our office has solved as a result of District Attorney Quinn's Untested Rape Kit Initiative.