Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) GranteeNorth Carolina Department of Justice

The North Carolina Department of Justice (NC DOJ) was awarded a $2-million SAKI grant in FY2018. The funding has been used to complete their sexual assault kit (SAK) inventory; develop a comprehensive, statewide approach for addressing previously unsubmitted SAKs; and increase trauma-informed sexual assault investigations and prosecutions.

Through their SAKI award, NC DOJ has convened regular multidisciplinary team meetings with representatives from across the state and from many different professional backgrounds; these meetings have involved discussions about project progress and about developing guidance regarding cold case sexual assault investigations for local jurisdictions. As of September 2020, the NC DOJ SAKI team had developed victim notification protocols and held trainings across the state to educate law enforcement personnel, district attorneys, and victim advocates about this new protocol.

For more information on the specific SAKI awards for this site, see the table below.

North Carolina Department of Justice Funding

Year	Amount	Purpose Area
FY2018	$2,000,000	Comprehensive Approach to Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits

Please direct all media inquiries to:

Amber Lueken Barwick
Amber.LuekenBarwick@nccourts.org
919-890-1500

News and Events

Man charged in 1998 Raleigh rape case, given $3 million bond
— WRAL News, Jan 25, 2024
"A man has been charged in connection with a decades-old rape case in Raleigh after a sexual assault kit and DNA database brought new evidence to light. Averette Alston was charged for his alleged role in a sexual assault from Aug. 26, 1998, on South State Street."

Man charged with 1998 rape in Raleigh after long-delayed test of DNA evidence
— WRAL News, Nov 7, 2023
"Evidence against King surfaced in September as part North Carolina's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. In 2019, the state received $2 million in funding to test previously un-submitted sexual assault kits, investigate and prosecute the associated cases. Few sexual assault kits remain untested in NC, data shows. "This is an initiative that started in 2019 [and] thousands of kits have been tested across the state," said Wake County's District Attorney Lorrin Freeman. "It's unfortunate it's been that long to be able to bring these cases.""

North Carolina man pleads guilty to raping woman 31 years ago, sentenced to decades in prison
— Fox News, Mar 28, 2023
"A North Carolina man who pleaded guilty on Monday to raping a woman in Fayetteville 31 years ago was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The department received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s FY2015 National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Grant and reopened the case in 2015. Police arrested Roy Junior Proctor in November 2020 and charged him with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and felonious larceny. Proctor pleaded guilty on Monday, according to the Fayetteville Police Department, and received two 40-year sentences that will run concurrently for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, second-degree kidnapping, common law robbery and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill."

Raleigh police, with DNA from old sexual assault kit, make arrest in 1990 rape case
— Yahoo.com, Mar 18, 2023
"Raleigh Police arrested a man Friday in 32-year-old rape case using DNA analysis. Police announced the arrest Saturday, saying they had charged Deandre Marcel Smith, 51, with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping. Police said Smith was identified through evidence obtained recently as part of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)."

How is North Carolina doing on the rape kit backlog?
— WFmynews2, Feb 8, 2023
"Back in 2018, the attorney general's office found over 16,000 untested rape kits in local law enforcement offices across the state. Since then, they have cut that backlogged number in half. The AG's office hopes to speed up production with more staff. The office anticipates backlogged rape kit testing will be done by the end of the year, or by the start of 2024."

New Hanover County judge sentences man to over 48 years for 1996 rape and kidnapping case
— WECT, Dec 12, 2022
"A jury in New Hanover County has convicted Timothy Craig Iannone of first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping for a case dating back to 1996. Without the efforts of the State of North Carolina and Attorney General Josh Stein to provide millions of dollars to test rape test kits that had remained on shelves for decades this case might never have been solved."

State working to process backlog of untested rape kits
— wavy.com, Nov 23, 2022
"Nearly four years after the backlog of sexual assault kits were discovered in North Carolina, the attorney general says progress is being made in testing them. Approximately 16,000 kits were discovered at the time. Now in 2022, efforts have been made to tackle the issue. Since 2019, 12,000 of the kits have been tested."

Attorney General Josh Stein Provides Sexual Assault Kit Testing Update
— ncdoj.gov, Jul 14, 2022
"Attorney General Josh Stein today announced a new record of hits in the CODIS DNA database: 1,211 hits. That is a nearly 18 percent increase from the previous fiscal year and means that – thanks to increased testing – law enforcement has more ability than ever to move forward on cases. In addition to announcing this milestone, Attorney General Stein has launched a statewide sexual assault kit tracking dashboard. This dashboard was made possible by federal funding through the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative."

News Channel 12 Investigates: State leaders working to decrease sexual abuse kit backlogs
— News Channel 12, Kate Hussey and Jordan Honeycutt, May 23, 2022
"More progress is being made in clearing the backlog of untested sexual assault kits that sat on the shelves of North Carolina law enforcement agencies for decades. News Channel 12 has been following the sexual assault kit tracking system year after year, ever since it was first implemented in 2018. This year, Attorney General Josh Stein, said funding has been key. “We are continually learning about cases being solved, there have been some 60 different cases, or people who have been identified through this work, responsible for over 90 crimes,” said Stein."

Hendersonville man charged in sexual assault cold case from 2005, deputies say
— WYFF, Feb 1, 2022
Man arrested in Hendersonville, NC after DNA evidence linked him to a sexual assault case from 2005. The SAK was tested thanks funding from NC's “Standing Up for Rape Victims" (SURVIVOR) Act.

After two years, Survivor Act has legacy of rape convictions
— Carolina Public Press, Sep 24, 2021
To date, more than half of the old rape kits have been either tested or are in some process of testing. Of those, 3,756 kits have completed testing. Scientists have so far been able to extract a valid DNA sample from 1,379 kits, and of those 41%, or about 560, were a match on the federal Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.

Jury returns guilty verdict in decades-old Wilmington rape case
— Krys Merryman, StarNews Online, May 20, 2021
DNA from a previously untested SAK leads to guilty verdict in cold case sexual assault from 1996 in Wilmington, NC.

Jury returns guilty verdict in decades-old Wilmington rape case
— Krys Merryman, StarNews Online, May 20, 2021
DNA from a previously untested SAK leads to guilty verdict in cold case sexual assault from 1996 in Wilmington, NC.

Attorney General Josh Stein Provides Update on Sexual Assault Kit Testing
— North Carolina Department of Justice, Dec 10, 2020
“Continuing to test these kits is critical to promoting public safety in North Carolina,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “Thanks to tested kits, law enforcement has made arrests in recent weeks solving violent crimes in Fayetteville, Wilmington, Durham, and other communities across the state. The state has tested 2,169 previously untested SAKS. 764 cases have been entered into the state and national DNA databases. Forty percent of those cases had a hit to a known person in the database or to another case, allowing law enforcement to move the case forward.

NC Senate approves budget with rape kit reform
— Matt Moore, WYFF, May 31, 2019
NC Senate has approved the state's budget which earmarks $3 million for testing unsubmitted sexual assault kits.

NC has more than 10,000 untested rape kits. A new plan aims to erase the backlog.
— Josh Shaffer, The News & Observer, Jan 29, 2019
NC Attorney General Josh Stein announced the introduction of the Survivors Act which asks for $6 Million in funding for testing previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits and set standards for submitting kits to the crime lab.

North Carolina Gets $2 Million Federal Grant to Test Sexual Assault Kits
— Alex Olgin, WFAE 90.7, Oct 4, 2018
North Carolina received $2 million in funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to test previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits, investigate and prosecute the associated cases, and receive training on trauma-informed, victim-centered approaches.

North Carolina Launches Sexual Assault Tracking System
— Alex Olgin, WFAE 90.7, Oct 1, 2018
The North Carolina Attorney General's office will be launching their new Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Technology Inventory Management System (STIMS) early next week. This system will allow victims to track their sexual assault kits as they go through processing.