DNA match ties suspect to Las Vegas attempted rape

A DNA match through a FBI database led police to a 32-year-old man suspected of attempting to rape a stranger as she walked home in November in central Las Vegas, according to an arrest report.

About 10 p.m. Nov. 11, a woman called police to report that a man tried to sexually assault her daughter earlier in the night, according to the report and Metropolitan Police Department dispatch logs. The victim told officers that as she was walking home from a Jack in the Box at the corner of Flamingo Road and Swenson Street, a man pulled her into an alley, removed her pants and attempted to rape her.

She told detectives she was able to get away from the man, and she ran home and told her mother about the assault, the report said.

The victim was taken to University Medical Center, where a DNA sample was taken during an exam. The sample was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, an FBI database, and matched with 32-year-old Lynwood Young — who in 2008 was convicted of sexual abuse in Kentucky, according to Young’s arrest report.

Detectives determined that Young was working for a digital marketing agency in Las Vegas in November. He was arrested Nov. 12 and charged with first-degree kidnapping, sexual assault and battery with intent to commit sexual assault on a victim 16 or older, court records show.

He also faced a charged of failing to register as a sex offender, but the Clark County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, according to court records.

Young was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday on charges of sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping, and battery with intent to commit sexual assault, District Court records show.

The victim of the attempted sexual assault told police she was attacked while walking home after her date was arrested during a traffic stop at the Jack in the Box. She was unable to pick out Young during a photo lineup, but said “it was dark and she could only see the jaw of the suspect,” the report said.

Young declined to speak to police before he was arrested. According to the report, Young’s 2008 Kentucky convictions were for third-degree sexual assault, attempted kidnapping, wanton endangerment, second-degree burglary and first-degree fleeing or evading police.

Court records show that Young previously was arrested in Clark County in March 2018 on suspicion of failing to register as a “convicted person,” and in September 2018 on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender. Both charges were dismissed by the District Attorney’s office.

Young remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Friday with a $100,000 bail, jail records show.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.