Crime & Safety
Loch Raven Parking Lot Rapist IDed Through DNA: Prosecutors
A rape case concluded this week related to an assault by a "hack" who took his ride to a parking lot in Towson, prosecutors said.
TOWSON, MD — A jury convicted a Baltimore man this week of rape, kidnapping, assault and theft in connection with an incident in a parking lot behind Loch Raven High School in 2019.
Brandon Saunders, 30, picked up his victim in Baltimore City, according to authorities.
She had gotten into an argument with a friend and was waiting for a bus when Saunders offered to take her to her father's house, investigators said.
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Prosecutors described Saunders as a "hack," or someone who operates an illegal taxi.
While they were driving, the victim asked where they were going, since the driver was not headed the right direction for her father's house, and he began to attack her in the car, officials reported.
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Prosecutors said the attack occurred around 3 a.m. on July 28, 2019.
After Saunders threatened the victim's life and raped her, he went to the trunk to get a weapon, and the victim ran through a wooded area, barefoot, onto I-695, prosecutors said. There, she flagged down a driver for help.
It was around 4:30 a.m. when a passerby called 911 upon seeing her, bloodied and disheveled from the attack, police said.
Officials said that DNA recovered from the victim matched DNA connected to another rape in Baltimore City.
"This connection became vital in assisting the police in determining that Brandon Saunders was the man who raped the victim in this case," lead prosecutor Lisa Dever said in a statement Wednesday.
Saunders, of the 900 block of Eierman Avenue in Baltimore, was arrested July 28, 2020, one year after the attack.
After a trial that began Wednesday, Nov. 10, court records show the jury handed down its conviction Tuesday, Nov. 16, finding Saunders guilty of the following:
- First- and second-degree rape
- First- and second-degree assault
- Kidnapping
- Theft less than $100
The state's attorney for Baltimore County thanked detectives from both jurisdictions for their work.
"A violent sexual offender has been removed from the streets," Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said.
Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Nancy Purpura will sentence Saunders on Jan. 12, 2022.
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