'Serial Rapist' With Prior Conviction In Arlington Found Guilty In DC Cold Case

WASHINGTON, DC — A D.C. man who was previously convicted of rape in Arlington has been convicted of sexually assaulting another woman in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ronald Berton Jr., 48, was found guilty by a jury on Monday for sexually assaulting a 30-year-old woman in D.C. in June 2010. Berton faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender for life, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

According to the government’s evidence, the victim was at home sleeping in her ground level Adams Morgan apartment on June 12, 2010, at about 7:30 a.m. Berton entered her home and went into her bedroom, where he stood over her, according to prosecutors. The victim woke up and Berton restrained her and sexually assaulted her.

The two were not known to each other.

The woman fought back, ultimately collecting the defendant’s DNA underneath the fingernails of both her hands, according to prosecutors. After the assault, Berton stole the victim's phone and fled. He used the victim’s stolen SIM card, which he placed into a different handset, to call an acquaintance five hours later, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Police considered Berton as a possible suspect in the 2010 sexual assault in 2017, when detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit identified him as the suspect in a 2007 sexual assault.

In the 2007 case, Berton entered the ground level apartment of a 27-year-old woman who also lived in Adams Morgan. He restrained and sexually assaulted the woman and then stole her phone and fled, according to prosecutors. The victim obtained an immediate sexual assault examination and reported the assault to police.

Berton was later identified by his DNA profile and was arrested in a Virginia prison in 2017, where he was serving a sentence for a 2010 rape in Arlington.

For the 2007 sexual assault in D.C., a jury found him guilty of kidnapping and first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances at a March 2020 trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

In the 2010 Arlington case, Berton entered the ground level apartment of a woman who was sleeping in September 2010 and sexually assaulted her. After that assault, he stole two cell phones and a laptop and fled. He was later identified as the perpetrator through DNA, according to prosecutors.

Berton was convicted in the 2010 case and a separate 2008 case in Arlington in 2012. But a Virginia appeals court overturned the rulings in 2013, saying the cases had been inappropriately consolidated. The court ordered Berton to be retried in both cases. He was convicted in the 2010 rape case in 2014. Prosecutors did not pursue the 2008 case.

In Monday's verdict in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Berton was found guilty of first degree burglary, kidnapping, first degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances, assault with intent to commit first degree sexual abuse, and attempted first degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances. He is scheduled to be sentenced for the June 2010 sexual assault in D.C. on March 3.