Lacey police arrested a man on suspicion of rape Monday. DNA evidence collected from a woman after an alleged sexual assault matched the suspect’s DNA profile, which had been entered into the state’s DNA database, court papers state.
Jerome Lamont Shumate, 32, of Olympia was ordered held on suspicion of second-degree rape during a court hearing Tuesday. His bail was set at $50,000.
According to court papers, the alleged rape occurred in August in Lacey, after the accuser met a man on an Intercity Transit bus and he invited her to his trailer in the woods. The woman reported the unknown male had raped her in the woods near the 8600 block of Martin Way East in Lacey. The woman reported the rape immediately. Detectives collected DNA evidence and submitted it to the State Patrol Crime Lab.
In February, Lacey Police Detective Bev Reinhold received a report from the crime lab indicating that the DNA evidence matched Shumate’s DNA profile, which had been entered into the Combined DNA Index System. Shumate was convicted of a third-degree rape in 1997, when he was a juvenile.
Police contacted Shumate at his workplace on Monday, and he denied having sex with anyone other than his girlfriend since July. After he was told of the DNA evidence implicating him as having had sex with the accuser, he continued to deny having sex with her. After about an hour of questioning, Shumate changed his story and said he had had sex with an unknown woman, but he said it was consensual.
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445 jpawloski@theolympian.com
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