Source: United States Department of Justice News
WASHINGTON – Samuel Sampson Peaks, 35, of Bowie, Maryland, was arraigned today on charges stemming from a 2013 cold case involving an armed sexual assault of a stranger, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Acting Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
According to court documents, on February 12, 2013, Peaks encountered the victim, who was a stranger to him, at the Minnesota Ave. Metro station at approximately 6:00 a.m. He followed her and eventually brandished a handgun and forced her to perform a sexual act. After the assault was over, the victim immediately called police, who responded and recovered evidence. The evidence was timely tested for DNA in 2013 and resulted in a mixture of DNA from the victim and an unknown male. In 2020, the defendant was arrested for an unrelated crime in Prince George’s County, Maryland, at which time his DNA was collected and entered into CODIS, ultimately matching the DNA profile obtained from the evidence in the armed sexual assault case.
On March 10, 2022, a District of Columbia Superior Court Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Peaks in the cold case with one count of first degree sexual abuse while armed with aggravating circumstances. On February 17, 2023, the defendant was sentenced to a period of incarceration after conviction in the Prince George’s County case. Peaks was brought to D.C. and arraigned on the sexual assault indictment on September 14, 2023.
If convicted of the D.C. sexual assault, Peaks faces a maximum sentence of up to life in prison, a possible fine of up to $125,000, no less than five years of supervised release, and would be required to register as a sex offender for life.
This case was brought as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Initiative and investigated by MPD’s Sexual Assault Unit. In February 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia created the Cold Case Sexual Assault Initiative, designed to work with law enforcement partners to reinvestigate, solve and bring charges in previously unsolved cases of sexual assault against adults and juveniles. The Cold Case Initiative works with the MPD, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, and state and local law enforcement agencies in the DMV area.
This case is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.