![[Valid RSS]](https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205913im_/https://ocgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/valid-rss-rogers.png "Validate my RSS feed")
DEKALB COUNTY, GA.– A Loganville man convicted of raping a woman and killing her and her brother nearly 35 years ago learned he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
During a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, March 18, DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Shondeana C. Morris, who presided over the trial of Kenneth Perry, 56, sentenced Perry to serve three consecutive life sentences, plus 100 years in custody.
Jurors found Perry guilty on March 11 of two counts of Malice Murder, two counts of Felony Murder, Rape, four counts of Aggravated Assault, two counts of Aggravated Battery, two counts of Possession of a Knife During the Commission of a Felony, and Theft by Taking, in connection with the rape and murder of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and the murder of John Sumpter, 46, in 1990.
According to the investigation, on July 15, 1990, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) responded to a report of a stabbing at an apartment complex on Tree Hills Parkway in Stone Mountain. When police arrived, they found Pamela Sumpter at a neighbor’s apartment where she had gone for help after discovering the phone lines inside her unit had all been cut. Sumpter was visibly injured and said she had been raped and stabbed.
Ms. Sumpter told officers that her brother, John Sumpter, had been stabbed as well. Officers found John Sumpter deceased in the living room of their apartment next door.
Ms. Sumpter was rushed to the hospital where medical professionals collected a rape kit that included DNA from her attacker. Police interviewed Ms. Sumpter in the hospital. She told investigators her brother had brought a man over to their apartment. She knew very little about this new acquaintance, but she was able to give police a description, including that he was from Detroit, Michigan.
Ms. Sumpter succumbed to her injuries in the hospital on Aug.5, 1990, and the case went cold.
Federal Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA Grant
More than three decades after the crime, the District Attorney’s Cold Case team identified Perry through investigative work funded by the Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA grant secured by the office in October 2023 from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).
February 2024
The DA’s Office worked with the GBI to upload the DNA profile at the national level and received a match soon afterward to an unprosecuted sexual assault case in Detroit, Michigan in 1992.
March 2024
The DA’s Office received the Detroit case file. The victim identified the suspect as her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Perry. A DA’s Office investigator located a man in Loganville, Georgia with the same name and birthdate as the Detroit suspect.
April 2024
Using Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG), Othram, a private lab partner, determined genealogical matches to the DNA from Pamela Sumpter’s rape kit “formed a family network that could include Mr. Perry.” They recommended testing a direct sample from Mr. Perry for confirmation.
June 6, 2024
Members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit executed an arrest warrant and Perry was taken into custody without incident. Investigators collected a DNA sample from Perry to confirm that he was the perpetrator in the 1990 case.
June 20, 2024
The GBI notified the DA’s Office that the DNA sample collected from Perry at the time of his arrest was a match to the DNA collected in Ms. Sumpter’s rape kit.