Man convicted of rape in 1st trial from Minneapolis Sexual Assault Kit Initiative

A 2020 plan to test previously untested sexual assault kits has led to its first conviction.

Friday afternoon, a Hennepin County jury found 49-year-old James Andrew Works guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of kidnapping.

His trial marked the first to come from the joint partnership between the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the Minneapolis Police Department, the Sexual Violence Center and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that focused on solving old sexual assault cases.

Back in 2020, the Minnesota Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) was launched using a $2 million grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to the state two years earlier and several subsequent grants. The goal was to test sex assault kits that had gone untested and then collect and evaluate data from the cases.

“Victims deserve justice and our community needs to know that we will not let those who commit these crimes go without accountability,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “We are prioritizing this work and I am grateful for the partnership and work of MPD and BCA, along with our staff who worked on this case. I hope the victims in this case feel some sense of relief after these verdicts.”

Prosecutors say Works, holding a gun, approached two victims in June 2010, took them to a secluded spot and then raped them. The BCA finally tested the kits in 2021 and the DNA pointed investigators to Works.

The victims also later identified Works as the person who raped them upon seeing his picture, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says.

His sentencing is scheduled for May 8.