CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Roger Dale Honeycutt, 62, was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison Friday after a jury convicted him of two counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sex offense and two counts of first-degree burglary.
Police say those crimes happened more than three decades ago.
"Whether it's a year after it happens, or 30 years after it happens, the emotions and feelings of the victims don't change," said Detective Troy Armstrong, with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit.
"This is a burden they've carried with them almost half a century."
The case from 1981 was reopened in 2002.
A DNA match was found in 2010. That match was the key evidence in this case because neither victim could identify her attacker.
One of victims told the jury she was pregnant and asleep on the couch when a man came in and raped her. Her husband and 2-year-old were sleeping upstairs.
Armstrong says he is glad he can tell the victims that justice was served.
"They both are waiting on that phone call and that's what I'm going to do right now," he said.
Armstrong says this was the oldest case that CMPD's cold case unit has brought to trial.
Honeycutt's attorney told the judge that his client was a Vietnam veteran and a father of three. He says he will appeal the conviction. Honeycutt's lawyer says the DNA was only a partial match and that Honeycutt says he is innocent.
WSOC
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