One Year Ago Today (September 3, 2021)…A 50-year-old ex-convict who sexually assaulted a Riverside woman in 1995 pleaded guilty to forcible rape and kidnapping.
Ralph Leslie Kroll of Eastvale admitted the charges under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors indicated that sentence-enhancing allegations connected to the case may be dropped in exchange for Kroll’s admissions, which came just as his preliminary hearing was slated to begin at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Superior Court Judge O.G. Magno scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 15, at which point the plea deal will be formalized. There was no word on the proposed prison term stipulated under the agreement.
Kroll remains held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
Kroll was arrested 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 Kroll as the donor of the genetic material, according to investigators.
A warrant was obtained for Kroll’s arrest in August 2020, and he was taken into custody without incident at his Eastvale residence.
The assault occurred in the 8800 block of Indiana Avenue. Railsback said 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 the 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.