According to published reports, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office has revealed that Jelani Maraj’s DNA profile was a more than billion to one match of the semen on his alleged victim’s pants.
“…A DNA profile, a partial profile matching the defendant or consistent with the defendant, your honor, to the point in the hundreds of billionths of chance of it being any other individual, was discovered in the…pants of the complainant in this case, and also tested positive indicating the presence of semen,” Anthony Pirri, the assistant district attorney told the judge at a hearing July 26 in Nassau County Supreme Court’s sex crimes division.
The 12-year-old alleged victim told police that Jelani repeatedly raped and sodomized her in between April 1 and Nov. 30, 2015. Police arrested him the day after the last alleged rape.
A grand jury indicted Jelani on felony child rape charges, including predatory sexual assault against a child and first degree sexual conduct against a child. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison on the top charge.
The case is slated to head to court in November, however according to BOSSIP reports, Pirri has offered Jelani a deal of 15 years to life for an “A-II” felony of “predatory sexual assault of a child.”
Pirri revealed that before Jelani was indicted, the District Attorney’s office offered him seven years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to “course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree,” a “B” felony. However he rejected the offer.
He has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
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