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   From: time-to-jail-black-criminals@again.org   
      
   The trail went cold for nearly a decade until police got the man’s   
   fingerprints due to a minor traffic violation in 2016.   
      
   A man who broke into the homes of three Berkeley women and sexually assaulted   
   them in 2008 was convicted Monday as part of a plea deal and sentenced to 24   
   years in state prison.   
      
   Johnny Dunbar, who was 16 at the time of the assaults, raped two of the women.   
   He used a knife to coerce his first victim and a gun to confront his second   
   one, according to police. Dunbar also used a knife to try to force a third   
   woman to orally copulate    
   him but was “scared off” before he could succeed, police said after his   
   arrest.   
      
   Police found fingerprints and collected DNA from the sex crimes, which took   
   place in the same North Berkeley neighborhood over just one month in the   
   summer of 2008. But the evidence didn’t match anyone in the system. The   
   trail went cold and Dunbar    
   evaded detection for nearly a decade.   
      
   That changed in March 2016 when Berkeley police pulled him over on a minor   
   traffic violation. Police collected his fingerprints as part of that case and   
   ultimately found their man: Subsequent forensic analysis matched Dunbar’s   
   prints to those found on    
   a windowsill after the first rape, on June 21, 2008.   
      
   Detectives then collected Dunbar’s DNA. It matched all three sexual assaults.   
      
   https://i0.wp.com/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.co   
   /wp-content/uploads/2022/04/johnny-dunbar.jpg?resize=476%2C720&ssl=1   
   Johnny Dunbar. Credit: ACSO   
      
   BPD arrested Dunbar on July 6, 2016, at his Delaware Street home not far from   
   the North Berkeley BART station. During the arrest, police also found   
   thousands of dollars in cash and evidence of drug dealing, according to court   
   papers.   
      
   Two days later, the Alameda County district attorney’s office charged Dunbar   
   with two counts of forcible rape, one count of forcible oral copulation and   
   one count of attempted oral copulation. Dunbar, who was then 24 years old, was   
   charged as an adult.   
      
   Since that time, the case has moved through the court system at a glacial   
   pace. Initially, Dunbar’s defense attorney, Ernesto Castillo, attempted to   
   get his client’s case moved to juvenile court. He was unsuccessful.   
      
   On Monday, at long last, the case was scheduled for a 9 a.m. preliminary   
   hearing, which is a sort of mini-trial where the prosecution puts forward the   
   evidence it believes will allow a judge to order a defendant to stand trial.   
      
   This type of hearing, called a “px” for short, generally happens within a   
   year or so of arrest. But it can take longer if a case is complex or the   
   charges are particularly serious.   
      
   The px is often the first time evidence in a criminal case becomes public. Key   
   witnesses testify and experts take the stand.   
      
   The burden of proof for a preliminary hearing is much lower than at trial,   
   however. The prosecution doesn’t put on its whole case and the defense often   
   presents no evidence. The judge must determine only that a reasonable person   
   could believe that the    
   defendant may have committed the crime.   
      
   On Monday, Dunbar’s scheduled preliminary hearing didn’t happen at the   
   appointed time, however.   
      
   Instead, after taking some time in the courtroom to finalize a deal they had   
   been working on, Castillo and prosecutor Melissa Demetral told Judge Andrew   
   Steckler that Dunbar would change his not-guilty plea in the case in exchange   
   for an agreed-upon    
   sentence. They announced the deal just after 10:30 a.m.   
      
   As part of the agreement, Dunbar entered no-contest pleas and was convicted of   
   the June 21, 2008, forcible rape of the first woman he assaulted, along with   
   the July 8, 2008, forcible rape, as well as the forcible oral copulation, of   
   the second woman.   
      
      
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