A 50-year-old ex-con who sexually assaulted a Riverside woman a quarter-century ago is slated to be sentenced Wednesday to eight years in state prison.
Ralph Leslie Kroll of Eastvale pleaded guilty last month to forcible rape and kidnapping as part of a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors intend to drop sentence-enhancing allegations connected to the case in exchange for Kroll’s admissions, which came just as his preliminary hearing was slated to get underway at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Superior Court Judge Walter Kubelun is expected to certify the plea deal and impose the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
Kroll is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
He was arrested in August 2020 following an investigation by the Riverside Police Department’s Cold Case Unit.
According to police spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback, detectives in early 2020 requested that DNA connected to the Oct. 8, 1995, assault on the victim, identified in court documents only as Jane Doe, be screened for possible matches in the state’s crime database.
A hit was returned, showing the defendant as the donor of the genetic material, according to investigators.
A warrant was obtained for Kroll’s arrest, and the ex-con was taken into custody without incident at his Eastvale residence.
The assault occurred in the 8800 block of Indiana Avenue. Railsback said that the then-18-year-old victim was grabbed and forcibly taken to an apartment complex, where she was briefly held and sexually assaulted.
The young woman did not know or recognize her assailant.
After he fled, the victim went to police to report the assault, according to Railsback, who said that efforts to identify the perpetrator at the time proved futile. However, evidence was preserved for analysis.
According to court records, Kroll has a prior conviction for armed robbery.