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Ohio man gets 20 years in rape case solved by DNA
Eighteen years after an 11-year-old girl was raped in Naples Park, Randy E. Stodgel was sent to prison Thursday after a 2005 DNA match showed he was the rapist
Randy Stodgel
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NAPLES — An Ohio man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in a state prison for raping an 11-year-old Naples Manor girl in 1990 in a case that was solved three years ago with a DNA match.
Randy E. Stodgel, 39, of Greenfield, Ohio, faced up to life in prison on a capital battery charge, but pleaded no contest to attempted sexual battery of a child less than 12, pretending to be a police officer, stopping her as she left a wooded area, and taking her into the woods and raping her. The first-degree felony he pleaded to is punishable by up to 30 years in a state prison.
“The evidence would have been the victim’s testimony, coupled with the results of DNA testing,” Assistant State Attorney Deborah Schwartz told Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker as she and Assistant Public Defender Shannon Brown urged the judge to accept a plea agreement, which the victim wanted.
The judge adjudicated Stodgel guilty and imposed the sentence, which also requires him to serve 10 years of sex-offender probation with an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts once he’s released from prison. He will also be barred from using the Internet, driving alone and must maintain travel logs. He was given credit for time served since November 2005, when he was arrested and jailed in Ohio and extradited to the county jail in Naples five months later.
Baker also declared him a sexual predator. His photo and address will be available on a public database on the Internet and once he’s released, he will be required to report every change of address and to stay away from schools, bus stops, day care centers, parks or other places children congregate.
“If you’re around children accidentally ... that’ll probably bring you back to court so you can explain,” Baker told Stodgel, who stood before him in his orange jail jumpsuit, holding his hands behind his back. “When you’re released, I hope you can make some changes in your life.”
“Yes, sir,” Stodgel replied.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Al Ganich, the original detective, said he’d hoped Stodgel would get life, but understood and was pleased he was being sentenced.
“This guy’s a true pedophile,” Ganich said in a telephone interview, adding that other allegations involving children were reported in Ohio and South Carolina. “He’s kind of like a poster child for pedophiles.”
In 1990, Stodgel was living in Naples Manor, just a few blocks from where the rape occurred, off Warren Street near Carolina Avenue. Stodgel, then 20, approached the girl as she was leaving a wooded area where neighborhood kids play. When she walked out to the road, Stodgel, who was on a motorcycle and wore a helmet with a shield, stopped her and claimed he was a police officer.
He told her she was trespassing, reports say, and asked her if anyone else was in the woods. When she said no one else was there, Stodgel said, “Show me,” took her into the woods and raped her. Because the helmet partially covered his face and head, the girl couldn’t provide a good description.
There weren’t many clues for Ganich to go on — just the girl’s description of a white man on a motorcycle and the helmet. Ganich tried to match tire tracks and followed other leads, but the investigation went cold about nine months later.
The girl’s clothes were sent to a lab for testing, but there was no DNA match. Over the years, DNA technology improved and the clothes were sent to different labs in 1996 and 2003. It wasn’t until 2005 when a match, called a CODIS hit, proved Stodgel was the rapist.
CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, is a national system of computer databases designed by the FBI to store DNA profiles from convicted offenders, in addition to unknown DNA samples gathered from crime scenes. Any DNA profile developed from evidence in a case with no suspects can then be searched for a possible match in the databases.
“When I got the letter saying there was a DNA match, I was quite surprised,” Ganich said, adding that he believes this is his agency’s oldest case solved with a DNA match. With backlogs at labs, he agreed there could be other evidence involving Stodgel that hasn’t yet been submitted for testing.
Ganich said Stodgel was on probation in Ohio for burglary, so he flew there, waited for him to meet with his probation officer, served him with a warrant and questioned him. Even when told about the match, Stodgel didn’t confess, Ganich said.
However, Ganich noted that “it was winter and he was really sweating.”
“Some of his family knew he had issues with children,” Ganich said, mentioning other alleged victims who were children of two past girlfriends of Stodgel in other states.
Stodgel’s DNA sample came from a prison stay in Alabama, where he served time for a drug conviction. He’d also been jailed in Ohio and South Carolina, where he was held on an improper sexual contact with a minor charge in 1998; Ganich said that case was dropped after the victim moved.
Both Schwartz and Brown traveled to Ohio to interview other victims who alleged in police reports that he’d committed sexual acts against them.
Comments
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CASTERATE HIM!!!!
#1 Posted by orange469 on August 28, 2008 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
#2 Posted by TiredoftheBS on August 28, 2008 at 11:38 a.m.
CCSO, Great work! Congratulations! And thanks.
#3 Posted by DinNaples on August 28, 2008 at 12:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
APD Brown: Who gives a crap whether this was in "his best interests"?????? The victim's best interests are the only things that matter here. I can't believe NDN included that quote.
#4 Posted by twright on August 28, 2008 at 12:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
20 Year?
the garbage should have gotten 40 in a plea bargain.
soon it'll be probation in this county with these judges
#5 Posted by grouper25 on August 28, 2008 at 1:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
He should have been giving LIFE NO PAROLE!!!
#6 Posted by Hendry on August 28, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Another 3rd world animal!!!!
#7 Posted by ricky369 on August 28, 2008 at 5:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
just put a bullet in this guys head! That would be much cheaper for us taxpayer's in the long run
#8 Posted by CJR139 on August 28, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
franz....are you kidding me. Do you have children? You think this is a fair sentence? He raped a child for god's sake.....he should get life in prison. He shouldn't be put back into society, he should rot in prison for what he has done to that child. That child is going to be scarred for life.
#9 Posted by cheetah143 on August 28, 2008 at 5:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Frankz...are you kidding?? In fairness? Was he fair to the victim? You are either a defense lawyer or a pedophile yourself...which is it?
#10 Posted by naplesknowitall on August 28, 2008 at 6:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Frankz...I can assure you that other people that are considering raping a young innocent child will not read this article and think "Gee, if I don't kill her I may only get 10 years but if I kill her I may get more." I'm sure that if this had been your daughter that was raped you would probably be singing a different tune. There will be no rehabilitation for this animal. He thinks differently than normal people. He will not be able to control himself and will likely reoffend when he's "reintergrated" back into society. Frankz, since you seem so supportive of this guy maybe he can move into your neighborhood? I don't want him in mine...
#11 Posted by Analytical_Skeptic on August 28, 2008 at 6:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It took them long enough to catch this sicko!
Meanwhile, they can catch a rapist with DNA, BUT THEY CAN'T IDENTIFY dead people buried on the corner of Goodlette-Frank Road and Pine Ridge Road in unidentified graves?
Thank goodness this man is finally off the streets.
#12 Posted by beetlejuice on August 28, 2008 at 7:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OK, NDN didn't like my previous post? Why not?
Hmmm...
This guy got off easy.
I hope he gets "all the lovin" he needs in prison.
Is that better?
#13 Posted by TiredoftheBS on August 28, 2008 at 10:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pedophiles are easily dealt with in prison.
It is very simple, a little birdie I.E. corrections officer pulls the biggest,baddest convict to the side and let's it be known that Stodgel is a child molester and the convicts will take care of the rest...
#14 Posted by Jadip811 on August 28, 2008 at 10:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why the heck R U bringing up the gays when this SICKO, PERV, WHOPPER FREAKO went after a young girl who could barely defend herself?
Shame on those trying to make this about what happens when this guy bends over in the shower in jail.
We all know what goes around, comes around.
This jerk should have the death penalty, and DNA testing should be used more often......
FOR INSTANCE....to identify the poor dead souls who remain unidentified off of Goodlette Road and Pine Ridge Road.
DNA testing is the best way to help in a identifying criminals....now let's use it for another important reason!
#15 Posted by beetlejuice on August 28, 2008 at 11:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Apparently some of you just plain cannot read. He is going to serve 20 years then 10 sex offender probation with the ankle monitor when he gets out. I don't know where you got that he is going to only be in prison for 10 years.
I know he'll get about 3 years credit time served (which he is entitled to by law) and he only has to serve 85% of the 20 years (17 years) if he is a good boy in prison, but he isn't just getting 10 years.
#16 Posted by Duh on August 28, 2008 at 11:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I know for a fact that Randy Stodgel is a lucky man.
1. Lucky that he was not found by my father back 19 years ago because I know he would not be alive today.
2. Lucky he had gotten away with it for so many years
3. Lucky to accept 20 years in prison as a child molester/predator. Even though the legal jargon in his plea says it was an attempt.
I know
He knows
The lawyers
And even the judge should know that it was not an “attempted sexually battery” it was a child sexual molestation.
I am happy to put this behind me and that I have found closure
#17 Posted by girl78 on August 29, 2008 at 1:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Could be time for us all to move on now?
#18 Posted by R_Popoff on August 29, 2008 at 5:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
#27 Posted by frankz
How about the "time" his victims spent being rehabilitated? Guess they don't matter huh?
He will be out someday,hopefully he will walk with a severe limp and his bowels and organs never function correctly again.
It is wrong to molest a child and in prison he will get what he deserves.
Have you ever been molested Frankie?
I know that is deeply personal but the victims of molesters are never the same afterwards and some feel they would rather be dead.
They feel major mental trauma a deceased person just doesn't feel.
Being sexual rehabilitated is argueably impossible by many experts. Sexual needs are a factor in many relationships,ways of life, motives, desires, etc.
Let me guess what your going to say next.
Chemical or physical castration. That is arguable as well. You can molest without a sexual organ with other items, fingers, phallic shaped objects, etc.
If I didn't know better would you be related to this dirtbag? Or be a pedophile yourself? You seem awful bent on defending him, and do stress the word bent..
#19 Posted by Jadip811 on August 29, 2008 at 5:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
#31 doesn't understand how things work in prison. He will be labeled "short eyes" and handled accordingly. Prisoners have children too and in their own warped sense of morality, they don't like it when adults rape little kids. He will go in a tight end and come out a wide receiver.
#20 Posted by youwilltapout on August 29, 2008 at 7:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Let me take custody of him. I have a little airboat trip in mind. Won't cost taxpayers a dime. Sit back, have a beer, and listen to him scream in the "wooley swamp". And you know what...I won't loose a wink of sleep. Good day
#21 Posted by Flacrkr on August 29, 2008 at 8:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Our tax dollars at work, giving this guy 20 years of food and shelter. We should have a lottery for these guys to see who gets the chance to put a bullet in his head.
#22 Posted by 1quik91 on August 29, 2008 at 8:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
#23 Posted by Patty1948 on August 29, 2008 at 9:48 a.m.
girl 78,
It is great to know U have found closure, and if it was up to me.... I WOULD SAY
DEATH PENALTY..
But who listens to Beetle anyway.
Kudos for rising above it, and thank goodness for DNA testing.
NOW WHO ARE THE DEAD PEOPLE BURIED IN FRONT OF A PARKING LOT AND GOODLETTE ROAD?
How can people rest in peace, when we don't even know who they are?
DNA TESTING IS THE ANSWER TO MANY QUESTIONS.
#24 Posted by beetlejuice on August 29, 2008 at 1:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As naive as any other correctional officer could be LavendaLou.
Get hired and gungho to change the world.
Then finally realize your wasting your time, it is a lost cause.
Work your eight and then hit the gate.
I speak from experience when I say there is even a bit honor among convicts.
Felons,bank robbers, white collars crimes, even murders are nothing to a convict. But some how they all still remember what it feels like to be a child and many have children of their own. And they are quick to hammer pedophiles. Pedophiles are hated by everyone in prison, right next to rapists. Every convicted pedophile I've seen or heard of was in a protective custody situation or housing unit because another convict found out and was looking to do great bodily harm.
He was one big walking target of opportunity.
So if that is naive because I witnessed it first hand with my own two eyes then so be it sweetheart...
#25 Posted by Jadip811 on August 29, 2008 at 11:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
He'll have so many new buddies in jail to help him pick up his soap in the shower he will not know what to do.
#26 Posted by beetlejuice on August 29, 2008 at 11:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Very well said Jadip811!
girl 78...thank you for having the courage to put a post on here. I think it's good for the people making posts on here supporting this guy to realize that you are a real person. Maybe they'll think twice before placing any more postings on. I'm very sorry for what you've had to endure for the past 19 years. Hopefully this will bring some closure for you.
#27 Posted by Analytical_Skeptic on August 30, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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