WREG.com

DNA database leads to conviction in 2019 rape

Frederick Leon Peat

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man was convicted Wednesday in a 2019 rape in South Memphis after a DNA database linked him to the crime, Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich said.

Frederick Leon Peat, 43, was convicted of aggravated rape following a three-day trial. He will be sentenced on Nov. 15 by Judge Carolyn Blackett.


The following was sent in a release from Weirich’s office:

“According to testimony, the victim was looking for an acquaintance in the early-morning hours of April 24, 2019, at an apartment near Georgia Avenue and South 4th Street. She said a man approached her, indicated that he had a gun in his pocket and ordered to a location behind the apartments where he raped her on a mattress.

“A DNA sample from a sexual assault kit was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database and a match to Peat was reported in January of 2020. The victim later identified Peat from a photospread.”