Chinquapin man found guilty in rape of 67-year-old disabled woman

A Chinquapin man was found guilty Thursday by a Duplin County jury of raping a disabled 67-year-old woman.

Alexander McKenzie Newkirk, 25, of Old Firehouse Road in Chinquapin, will spend 17 to 21 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree rape and first-degree burglary.

Prosecutors said Newkirk broke into a Providence Church Road in the Teachey area of Duplin County in March 2008. Once inside, Newkirk tore off the adult diaper of a 67-year-old physically disabled woman, who lived alone, and then raped her.

Eyewitnesses testified in court that Newkirk, who was a friend of one of the victim’s grandchildren who lived nearby, was at the scene of the crime around the time the crime took place.

Duplin County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene and detectives found what he believed to be sperm on a bed pad on the victim’s bed.

The bed pad was sent to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Raleigh for DNA testing. Agents with the lab testified in court that the bed pad contained sperm and that it matched Newkirk “to a scientific certainty.”

Experts testified that the probability of the sperm coming from anyone but Newkirk was one in 40½ quadrillion (a quadrillion is a one followed by 15 zeros, or a million billion) said Assistant District Attorney Bob Roupe.

“The jury in this case sent a message to Duplin County that this sort of outrageous conduct will not be tolerated,” District Attorney Dewey Hudson said. “This defendant has demonstrated that he is a danger to our community and that he needs to be incarcerated for the safety of our community.”

Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.