NORFOLK, Va. — 72-year-old Linwood Scott Jr., currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for a 1994 rape case that he was found guilty of in 2022, plead guilty to another rape case on Monday, Oct. 28, this one occurring in 1992.
Scott was sentenced, per his plea, to serve 30 years in prison for the 1992 case, five years of which to be served consecutively to his sentence for the 1994 case.
During the early morning hours of Sept. 27, 1992, Scott entered the apartment of Shawn Kuzel -- who gave her name to police to be used -- in Ghent, while she was asleep.
Scott took a knife from the kitchen, stole cash from inside a purse, and went into Kuzel's bedroom. He woke her up and took her to the living room, where he raped her at knifepoint. He cut her hand as she attempted to fight him off. Scott asked if there was anyone else home, and Kuzel said no, in order to protect her roommate, asleep in another room. Scott left, Kuzel woke up her roommate, and called Norfolk police.
Kuzel was treated at a local emergency room where she received stitches in her hand from the knife wound, as well as undergoing a sexual assault nurse examination. DNA testing done at the time produced no leads on a suspect for the police to investigate, so the case went cold.
In 2023, as part of the national Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), the physical evidence recovery kit that Kuzel had submitted was reopened, and a DNA match was produced for Scott, who was at that point serving his sentence for the 1994 case. After speaking with Kuzel and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, Scott was charged with "rape, attempted forcible sodomy, burglary, abduction with intent to defile, and malicious wounding."
In the 1994 case, the DNA was tested on behalf of the victim, who called Norfolk Police in 2019 about the modern retesting of personal evidence recovery kits on TV.
“I am deeply grateful to Ms. Kuzel for her bravery and strength. Without her help we would not have been able to hold Mr. Scott accountable for his crime,” said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “The Attorney General’s SAKI initiative rights a historic wrong: The existence of evidence, that could convict dangerous individuals, sitting on a shelf instead of in court. Justice was delayed for far too long for the survivors of these crimes, but it has finally arrived.”
