Schofield soldier Mark Heath was arrested in 2007 for allegedly breaking into a UH dorm and stealing an iPod and panties from a female student. Investigators suspected him of committing an earlier rape. See the Star Bulletin story from 2007: http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/28/news/story05.html Now the DNA confirms he was the rapist. Here’s the story from the Honolulu Star Bulletin:
Find this article at:
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20081218_case_grows_against_sex_assailant.html
Case grows against sex assailant
DNA links Mark Heath to an unsolved crime that occurred in 2007
By Gene Park
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 18, 2008
A man who has already pleaded guilty to burglary and sexual assault at the University of Hawaii at Manoa pleaded no contest yesterday to another sexual assault case.
After Mark Heath, 21, pleaded guilty on April 30 to breaking into University of Hawaii dormitories and taking underwear and other objects, his DNA sample was taken.
That DNA was linked to an unsolved 2007 sexual assault case. Heath has been in custody on a $1 million bail.
Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy said she hopes to get a maximum of 60 years total for Heath’s crimes, including the university incidents.
“He’s a predator and he’s indiscriminate,” Murphy said. “This defendant knows no bounds. And yet if you were to look at him, he looks like someone you’d want your daughter to marry.”
In April 2007, Heath followed a woman unknown to him to her Ala Wai Boulevard apartment. The woman shut the door on him and went to sleep.
She awoke to find Heath raping her, chased him out but could not catch up to him.
Heath’s DNA was linked to that case. Yesterday he pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary and second-degree sexual assault.
On Aug. 19, 2007, Heath tried to cut off the panties of a female student at the Hale Mokihana dormitory on the Manoa campus. He also was accused of stealing women’s underwear and an iPod in November 2007.
Heath’s sentencing is scheduled for March 4.