Processed rape kit leads to charges in 2005 downtown sexual assault

Florida Department of Corrections photo of Michael Simmons

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The processing of a rape kit has led to an arrest in a 2005 sexual assault in Jacksonville, and the man charged is already serving life in prison for another rape that same year, according to an arrest warrant.

The arrest warrant states investigators submitted the results of the victim’s sexual assault exam to DNA testing in 2017. The results matched two other rapes from 2005 in which Michael Simmons, now 33, was charged, the warrant shows. Simmons pleaded guilty in one of those cases, and was sentenced to life in prison.

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The new charges stem from a case in downtown Jacksonville in February 2005.

The warrant says Simmons told the woman he was looking for the football stadium, then asked to use her phone. When she let him into her home, he sexually assaulted her and then fled, according to the warrant.