Wisconsin Rapids man convicted of sexually assaulting teenage girl he met at Fox River Mall in 2000
APPLETON – A 53-year-old Wisconsin Rapids man pleaded no contest Tuesday to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2000.
Police arrested John Carter in April 2021 after investigators matched DNA from bottles of chewed tobacco they found in garbage bags outside his home to DNA from a sexual assault kit. He has been in Outagamie County Jail since.
Carter is convicted of first-degree sexual assault and kidnapping, both with use of a dangerous weapon. His sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 18.
On Feb. 12, 2000, a 16-year-old girl working at Younkers at the Fox River Mall was sexually assaulted by a man who had watched her in the store and then waited for her in the parking lot.
According to a criminal complaint, the man waited for the girl to leave the store and walk to her car, then confronted her with a handgun and told her to get in the passenger seat. The man then drove her to a nearby car dealership and sexually assaulted her.
Afterwards, the man told the girl not to tell anyone about the incident and that he had her license plate number, then fled on foot, according to the complaint.
The girl went to a hospital and had a sexual assault kit completed. She also gave a description of the man who assaulted her to police.
The DNA sample did not have a match on local, state or national databases, but it did match DNA collected from a dress during investigation into a separate sexual assault that took place in Janesville in 1999.
The 1999 case was similar: the 16-year-old victim told police she was leaving work at a mall in Janesville when she was approached by a man with a black handgun. She said the man threatened and sexually assaulted her, then fled on foot after he told her he was going to write down her license plate.
The Janesville victim told police the man told her he sits in the mall parking lot to wait for girls to walk out to their car and then “does this," the complaint says.
In 2019, a Wisconsin State Crime Lab analysis using newer technology provided more information about the DNA profile than it previously had, according to the complaint. During the course of the investigation, Carter was identified as a suspect.
In February 2021, investigators collected two plastic bags of garbage from the road near Carter's home and found four plastic bottles that contained chewing tobacco. A detective swabbed the "spitter" bottles, and in April 2021, a Wisconsin State Crime Lab DNA analyst confirmed that Carter's DNA taken from the bottles matched DNA found on the leg of the victim of the Fox River Mall sexual assault, according to the complaint.
In an interview with police, Carter said he met the victim at Younkers in the mall, chatted with her for a bit, then waited for her outside the mall. He said he had a fake plastic gun with an orange tip that he covered with a black marker, and admitted to driving to a new location and sexually assaulting her, the complaint says.
Police also asked Carter about the Janesville incident in 2009. He told them he similarly went into the Janesville mall and chatted with a girl, then started drinking while waiting for her to leave work. He said he got into her car behind the girl, threatened her with the gun and sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint. He denied knowing the victim was 16 years old.
Carter faces sexual assault charges in Rock County for the Janesville case, according to court records.
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Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Man convicted of sexually assaulting girl he met at Fox River Mall
