Man, 57, returned to Las Vegas to face trial in 1994 sexual assault

A national DNA database has linked a 57-year-old man convicted of sexual assault in 1995 to another rape in the Las Vegas Valley the year prior, according to court documents.

An arrest warrant was issued in September for Jonathan Grant after he was charged with sexual assault in connection with a 1994 rape, according to North Las Vegas Justice Court records. Grant, who was a prisoner in New York at the time, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on June 18, jail records show.

In August 1995, Grant was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole on sexual assault and habitual criminal charges, according to District Court records. It was unclear when he was released from Nevada prison, but online court records in his current case indicate he was in a New York prison for 12 years before being booked into the Clark County jail.

The new case against Grant stems from a police report taken from a woman was walking to the Poker Palace Casino in North Las Vegas on Dec. 14, 1994, after being locked out of the home she was staying at in the Silverado Mobile Home Park. The woman told police in a 2019 interview that as she was walking, a man in a car pulled up and offered her a ride to the casino, according to Grant’s arrest warrant.

The man took her to the casino to get a key from her roommate’s mother, then drove her back to the mobile home park, the warrant said. But the man then followed her into the trailer and raped her, it said.

The Combined DNA Index System, a database operated by the FBI, linked Grant’s DNA to the 1994 assault, the report said. A detective with a Brooklyn special victims squad also notified Las Vegas police in June 2019 that the DNA matched a 2009 case.

Further details about the Brooklyn case or the reason for Grant’s imprisonment in New York were not immediately available.

Grant’s original sentence in Clark County came after his DNA was linked to two assaults from January and March 1995, the report said.

On Jan. 6, 1995, a woman was walking home near Washington Avenue and Lamb Boulevard when a man in a car offered her a ride home. When she said no, the man threatened her until she got into the vehicle, drove her to a bar’s parking lot near Nellis Boulevard and Craig Road, and raped her, the report said.

On March 16, 1995, a woman was waiting for the bus near the Silver Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas when a man offered her a ride. The woman asked him to drive her to a motel, but instead he took her to a trailer park and raped her, the report said.

The January 1995 case was dismissed as part of a plea deal in the March 1995 case, according to court documents.

Grant remained in jail on Friday with a $25,000 bail, court records show. A preliminary hearing in his current case is scheduled for July 6.

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