St. Paul man now in prison charged with rapes in '90s

St. Paul police had known for more than a decade that three brutal stranger-rapes -- two in 1993 and one in 1995 -- were connected.

But it wasn't until April 2008 that the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) found that a DNA sample taken from Lavern D. Spann, who had begun a 12-year prison sentence in 2005 for raping and molesting his girlfriend's daughter, matched the evidence of the cold-case sexual assaults. Another sample taken from Spann in July confirmed the results.

Spann, 41, of St. Paul, was charged in complaints filed last week in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The attacks happened within about a block of one another -- two in the 300 block of Ramsey Street, the other in the 300 block of Grand Avenue. They caused "a great deal of fear" in the community and sparked a "high-profile, aggressive investigation," said police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell.

In two of the cases, the rapist broke into the victims' apartments while they were sleeping. In the third, the rapist pulled the victim back into her apartment as she was leaving for work.

Schnell said an investigator told each victim recently that a suspect had been identified and charges were pending.

Donna Dunn, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said she doesn't know the victims in these cases. But in some cases, the news that a rape has been solved or an alleged perpetrator has been charged years after an attack "can be a pretty emotional event," she said.

"There is a sense of justice, but also it can be really difficult for a woman trying to move on and not let this thing control their life," she said.

According to the complaints, the first attack was Sept. 24, 1993, on Grand Avenue. The woman told police she awoke to see a man standing next to her bed. He choked her and asked for money. She gave him $40, but her attacker said that wasn't enough. He pulled down her pajama pants and his own pants.

"[The victim] told [the man] that she was still a virgin and to just kill her instead," the complaint said. The man raped her and told her "if she called the police, he would kill her," the complaint said.

The second attack was on Oct. 4, 1993, on Ramsey Street. That woman told police that she awoke when a naked man climbed into bed with her. He pulled off her clothes and raped her. The victim said she feared he would kill her.

The victim in the third attack, on June 7, 1995, left her townhouse on Ramsey Street about 5:20 a.m. and was grabbed by a man who put one hand on her neck and the other over her mouth. When she screamed "call 911," the man choked her and asked her if she "wanted to die," the complaint said.

Her attacker dragged her back into her home, repeatedly slapped her in the face and tried to suffocate her with a pillow. Then he raped her.

Each victim underwent a sexual assault exam at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. DNA confirmed the attacks were committed by the same person.

Then, on Dec. 1, 2004, the 16-year-old daughter of Spann's girlfriend told a resource officer at St. Paul's Arlington High School that she had been raped that morning.

Spann was arrested and told police that he had had sex with the girl because "he wanted to be the one to teach her about sex instead of some boy in school," according to court documents.

The girl, however, said Spann had grabbed her, dragged her into an unoccupied apartment in their building and raped her. More over, she said, Spann had forced her to perform sex acts with him since she was 7 years old.

Spann pleaded guilty in March 2005 to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is being held in the Rush City prison and has an anticipated supervised-release date on that conviction of Nov. 28, 2012, said Shari Burt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Spann's first court hearing on the new charges has not yet been set.

Pat Pheifer • 612-741-4992