SANTA ANA, Calif.—The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has cleared a backlog of rape kits that dated back to the early 1990s, resulting in up to seven criminal cases now under review, District Attorney Todd Spitzer told county leaders June 28.
The office tested nearly 1,700 kits that were eligible for testing and identified 311 potential suspects, according to Spitzer.
Six cases are pending, and another is under consideration as a result, Spitzer told the county’s board of supervisors.
“If those kits had remained untested, those victims would never potentially see justice and those individuals—who we’ve now charged—would not be held accountable for the sexual assault,” Spitzer said.
Processing one of the sexual assault kits resulted in the identification of a suspect in a 1993 kidnapping, rape, and robbery. Michael Ray Armijo was suspected of identifying himself as a police officer before raping a woman, who was with her boyfriend, in her car parked outside her Stanton home. He also stole their wallets, according to reports.
Armijo was convicted by a grand jury in February 2021 of two felony counts of kidnap to commit robbery and enhancements for using a firearm.
Armijo was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 24 years to life in state prison. The rape could not be charged because the statute of limitations had expired, but prosecutors fought for the maximum sentence.
Supervisor Katrina Foley said delaying the testing was a delay of justice.
“This is critical to our public safety and, of course, delaying the testing of the sexual assault kits is the delay of justice for women,” Foley said. “So very, very grateful for your team getting this all done expeditiously.”
The district attorney said he plans to stay on top of the case and “make sure we don’t have a backlog in the future.”
