COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was on Christmas night that Candy Brewer heard a "shave-and-a-haircut" knock on her apartment door. As she opened the door with the safety chain still on, a stranger burst in, pushed her down and raped her as her 2-year-old son lay asleep beside her.
It's Daddy, she told the boy when he woke up. Go back to sleep.
Brewer was attacked by Robert N. Patton Jr., who raped at least 37 women — 13 of them in the 2 1/2 years that a DNA sample that could have identified him sat in storage, waiting to be entered into a crime database. Federal funding to test felons' blood samples had run out five weeks before Patton's sample was taken.
Patton, 42, pleaded guilty this week, a day into the first of an expected four trials, admitting even to 43 offenses that had been dropped because they were too old. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 68 years in prison — longer than his plea bargain required — and fined $2.5 million for 135 counts of rape, kidnapping and burglary.
"The deal was for 50, and he asked for more," defense attorney Terry Sherman said. "He made a statement that he doesn't deserve to ever get out."
Patton's attacks began in 1987, but the case had been cold until last June. Detectives tried cross-referencing the victims but could not find anything they had in common. Even DNA had become less of a help; Patton had started forcing his victims to shower.
The crime spree ended only after a backlog of 11,000 blood samples collected from criminals over three years was entered into a database last year and became available for checking against samples from crime scenes.
Patton's DNA — collected in 2001 while he was in prison for burglary and other crimes — matched semen on the bodies of some of his earlier victims. He was arrested June 7, the day after his final attack.
Patton's victims were picked at random and were usually raped between late evening and early morning. Their homes were also burglarized. The victims ranged from 13 years old to about 30. They were attacked in apartments and houses around the Ohio State University campus and a neighborhood a few miles away by a man who came to be known as the Linden-area Rapist.
"All of a sudden, my door just slams open," said Brewer, 32, who was attacked in 1991. "He just pushed me on my daybed and raped me in front of my 2-year-old."
She said Patton threatened to kill the person he heard in the next room but realized it was Brewer's 11-month-old son stirring in bed. Patton left with a jewelry box and a black-and-white TV set that he yanked out of the wall.
After his arrest, Patton confessed and took officers on two tours of the city, pointing out homes he had invaded.
"He said he was glad to get caught," his lawyer said this week. "I think there was an internal struggle within him. I think the right side won out today."