A 58-year-old man accused of raping a College of William & Mary student in 1978 will face a jury Wednesday after spending nearly two-and-a-half years in prison awaiting his trial.
James Moses Glass Jr. was arrested in March 2012 after DNA evidence showed the wrong man was convicted. Bennett S. Barbour spent more than four years in prison after the accuser identified him in a mugshot a week after the alleged rape.
Barbour was released on parole in 1982. In 2012, The Virginia Department of Forensic Science discovered DNA in seminal fluid taken from the accuser’s underwear did not match Barbour’s DNA.
The DNA did match Glass, whose DNA was in Virginia’s sex offender database from an April 1979 forcible sodomy and rape conviction in York County.
Glass was convicted of failing to register as a violent sex offender in July 2012 and received a suspended sentence of two years.
The Williamsburg man pleaded not guilty to the rape charges in April 2012.
A petition prepared by Barbour’s lawyers state the alleged victim, then 19 years old, was going to her fiancé’s apartment in Williamsburg and came face-to-face with a black male pointing a small revolver at her when she opened the door. She said the man forced her into the apartment and raped her.
The incident is alleged to have occurred in Feb. 1978.
Williamsburg Police and the Williamsburg-James City County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office were notified of the mistaken DNA evidence after the Division of Forensic Science did DNA testing on cases from 1973 to 1988. Barbour’s sentence was erased by the Supreme Court of Virginia in May 2012.
After locating the accuser and Barbour, police arrested Glass on March 28, 2012.
He is charged with two felony counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, one felony count of abduction with intent to defile and one felony count of rape.
His trial has been continued six times since his arrest, according to court records. During Wednesday’s trial, a 12-member jury will deliberate and issue a verdict after hearing testimony from the defense and the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
The trial is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court.
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