A North Texas jury has sentenced a man to life in prison over an aggravated sexual assault committed 23 years ago.
Robert Warterfield was sentenced Thursday, a day after his conviction in the sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl in 1989. He's also charged in the assault of a 9-year-old girl that year.
On Wednesday the jury found 43-year-old Robert Warterfield guilty of breaking into a home, taking a 7-year-old girl from her bedroom and sexually assaulting her before letting her return home.
DNA evidence led police to Warterfield, who is a repeat sex offender, but only after DNA cleared another man, Stephen Brodie, who was wrongfully convicted of the crime 20 years ago.
Fingerprints outside the 7-year-old girl's home didn't match Brodie, but they do match Warterfield according to police.
Brodie, who is deaf, said he was interrogated for 19 hours and forced to confess to the crime. He was exonerated and released from prison in 2010 and Warterfield was arrested and charged with sexual assault.
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Police say they believe Warterfield may be the “North Dallas Rapist” who terrorized and sexually assaulted girls 7 to 19 years old in the 1980s and 1990s.
Investigators tested DNA from other cases related to the so-called "North Dallas Rapist" and linked Warterfield to two of them.
