Convicted rapist to be released from McNeil Island, arrested in connection with the Spokane rape case in 2004

A convicted rapist, due to be released from the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center later this month, was arrested after DNA linked him to a 2004 rape in Spokane.

Scott Raymond Halvorson, also known as Raymond Reynolds, is charged with first degree rape, second degree rape and second degree assault, according to court records.

Halvorson’s convictions date back to 1988, when he was convicted of luring a four-year-old girl to his Spokane County apartment. Prior to his conviction in the case, Halvorson also raped a 10-year-old girl with a knife, according to court records.

He was convicted of rape again in 2008 and sentenced on McNeil Island in 2014.

In June, Halvorson was granted his release to Spokane Township, where he would have been overseen by the Justice Department. His release date was set for September 21st.

Just weeks after that June hearing, Spokane police officers investigating colds under a grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs opened a new case.

DNA from a 2004 rape was submitted for testing in 2020. It took a year for the kit to be tested and uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) where it matched Halvorson.

It was by chance that the results came back just before Halvorson’s release, said Sgt. Zachary Storm, one of the investigators working on the project.

For years, Washington had a long backlog of sexual assault evidence, commonly referred to as “rape kits”. That changed about six years ago when state lawmakers passed law requiring departments to submit kits for testing within 30 days. At the same time, lawmakers made funds available to the Washington State Crime Lab to test the 10,370 backward kits.

The results of the Spokane rape in 2004 were confirmed with a new DNA sample from Halvorson, Stormt said. Then they contacted the victim, who told the officers their story.

In 2004, a 52-year-old woman who worked as a sex worker reported that a client had violently assaulted her. The victim told police the rapist tried to strangle her.

“I thought I was dead,” she told the officials, according to court documents.

After the attack, Halvorson drove away, the victim told the police. While she refused to report the attack to law enforcement, she went to the hospital.

There the police reacted and recorded the victim’s testimony, but could not find a suspect.

The victim was hard to find after filing the report, Stormt said. Several attempts to contact her went unanswered and the investigation stalled until last year when the DNA evidence was presented for testing.

The victim, now in her late 60s, told police that she would press charges if her attacker could be identified, although she is still afraid he would take revenge on her.

With the DNA comparison, the police had enough evidence to arrest Halvorson.

A Spokane patrol officer had also done a lot of work on the case in 2004, Stormt said. Your work will prove invaluable when the case goes to court, he said.

A conviction on these allegations would make Halvorson a persistent perpetrator who, according to court documents, requires a life sentence with no possibility of release.

On September 3, an arrest warrant was issued for Halvorson. He was moved from McNeil Island to the Spokane County Jail on Tuesday.

The Halvorson case is arguably the best known to emerge from the Spokane Sexual Assault Case Project, along with just a handful of other cases that have been referred to the Spokane County Attorney’s Office.

A few hundred more cases were closed, often due to lack of new evidence or at the request of the victim. The Police Department works with Lutheran Community Services Northwest to advise and represent victims of these incidents.

About half of Washington’s kits had been tested by November. While the kits are being tested, it does not mean that the results are being investigated. Few departments have the resources to investigate the large number of cases, Stormt said.

Investigating the 1,500 cases with untested kits has proven to be a bigger project than expected, Stormt said.

“We made a bad estimate. We thought we could do it in a year or two, ”said Storm. “I don’t know now, really not.”

Nevertheless, he sees this case as a sign that justice is possible.

“I’m grateful that we actually found something like this case that shows it’s worth doing,” said Stormt of the project.

If you have been sexually assaulted, you can report the crime to the police by calling (509) 625-4240 or by emailing [email protected]. The Lutheran Community Services Sexual Assault Hotline receives round-the-clock calls or text messages at (509) 624-7273.