VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Author's note: The video above is from 2020, when Virginia officially worked its way through a major backlog of untested rape kits.
A man will spend two life terms in prison after being convicted of an assault against a 21-year-old woman that happened back in 1992.
Tuesday, spokeswoman Macie Allen with the Commonwealth's Attorney for Virginia Beach said Ronny Jernigan had been sentenced for Forcible Sodomy, Abduction with the Intent to Defile, and Robbery.
The case goes back to Nov. 6, 1992. That night, he abducted a young woman as she was leaving the Video Express store near Wesleyan Drive in Virginia Beach.
Allen said Jernigan held a knife to the woman's throat and made her get into a car. They went to a parking lot where he forced the victim to turn out her purse and take off her clothes, before sexually assaulting her.
Once he kicked her out of the car and drove off, the young woman got help from a nearby home, and went to the hospital, where a medical team took a Physical Evidence Recovery Kit (PERK).
That kit was tested in 2016, when a new method of DNA testing became available, according to Allen.
The DNA matched a sample from Jernigan, who was in jail in Florida for a different robbery charge.
The 65-year-old was given a three-day trial in September 2021, and was found guilty of the crimes against the woman. Circuit Court Judge James Lewis sentenced him to three life terms in prison, but suspended one of those.
A life sentence, in Virginia, means a person has to spend 15 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
Allen said Jernigan's prior convictions include:
- Homicide-Manslaughter
- Aggravated Assault
- Armed Robbery
- Attempted Armed Robbery
- Robbery (3 counts)
- Concealed Weapon
- Possession of Marijuana
- Larceny
This case also follows an investigation into untested rape kits in Hampton Roads. In 2016, then-Governor Terry McAuliffe signed legislation that requires DNA evidence collected from sexual assault victims to be preserved and tested.
By mid-2020, that law led to the testing of 2,665 stored rape kits.