Jury convicts man in 1991 rape based on DNA evidence

A jury this week found that Brian Rascon raped a woman in 1991 during a home-invasion robbery in a case based on DNA evidence that had remained untested for decades, prosecutors said Friday.

Jurors deliberated about five hours Thursday before convicting Rascon, 52, of three counts of first-degree criminal sexual penetration with a firearm enhancement in connection with the July 1991 assault.

The verdicts followed a four-day trial in 2nd Judicial District Court before Judge Brett Loveless. Rascon faces up to 57 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled Oct. 29.

A sexual assault kit collected at the time of the attack was tested in 2020 resulting in Rascon’s identification through DNA, 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Nancy Laflin said in a statement. A second man involved in the attack has not been identified, she said.

“Rascon and several masked, armed men broke into the victim’s home searching for drugs and money,” the statement said. “When they found nothing, Rascon and another man sexually assaulted the victim simultaneously, causing great mental anguish.” The men fled the scene, and the case remained unsolved for decades.

In 2016, Tim Keller — then state auditor, now Albuquerque’s mayor — announced that an audit found that New Mexico had 5,302 untested rape kits dating to the 1980s. Two scientific laboratories began testing the kits in 2019, leading to multiple arrests and convictions.

Rascon’s conviction appears to be among the oldest rape cases yet to reach trial. Other cold-case rape convictions include:

• Jurors in November convicted Gilbert Contreras, 58, in the 1994 attack of a woman who was jogging in the bosque when she was dragged to a secluded area, then tied, beaten and raped. The victim, 43 at the time, died in 2013, long before her rape kit was matched to Contreras in 2022. He was sentenced in April to 54 years in prison.
• Edward Gilbert Duran, 66, pleaded no contest last year to 15 counts of criminal sexual penetration in the rapes of six Albuquerque women from 1992 to 1997. The case also was based on decades-old DNA evidence. Duran was sentenced in December to 270 years in prison.
• Ralph Anthony Martinez, 63, a former Albuquerque Public Schools bus driver, pleaded guilty last year to six counts of criminal sexual penetration in the rapes of four Albuquerque women from 1988 to 1991. Martinez was sentenced in August 2024 to 30 years in prison.