MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — More than 40 years after two women were raped in Maryland, the man responsible pleaded guilty.
Marion Pearson, 67, was arrested in North Carolina in November 2022 for raping two women in Montgomery County back in 1981. He pleaded guilty in court Friday to second-degree rape and second-degree sex assault for the attacks.
The admission was part of a plea agreement that has Pearson facing up to 17 years in prison. He will officially be sentenced in December.
On April 20, 1981, a woman was assaulted and raped near the 1800 block of University Boulevard West in Silver Spring, police said. DNA evidence was collected in that case.
On June 13, 1981, another victim was attacked and sexually assaulted in the area of Connecticut Avenue near Denfield Road in Silver Spring. Police said the suspect's description and pattern were similar to the rape that occurred on April 20.
Pearson was identified as a suspect in the two rape cases after cold case detectives submitted evidence from the April 1981 case to the Combined DNA Index System, otherwise known as CODIS, for additional testing. He was later also connected to the second attack reported in June 1981.
At one point, Pearson lived in Prince George's County, where he was arrested several times for assault, indecent exposure, and peeping-tom, between 1980 and 1999. He later served 22 years in prison in North Carolina for a series of rapes. He was released in 2020.
“After more than four decades the defendant is finally being held accountable for his violent actions in Montgomery County, MD. We thank the members of the Montgomery County Police Cold Case Unit for bringing closure to this case and hope the conviction can provide some comfort to the survivors of these crimes,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy.