A Kansas City man on trial for rape and sodomy abruptly pleaded guilty in the middle of his trial in Platte County Circuit Court. Sentencing is scheduled July 29 for Zachary L. Townsend, 43.
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said the defendant committed one of the most terrifying crimes imaginable for any woman.
“His victim, a single, 27-year-old woman awoke in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing at the foot of her bed,” Zahnd said.
“That man then repeatedly raped, sodomized, and physically assaulted her.”
The victim testified at trial that on December 21, 2006, she awoke sometime after 11:00 p.m. to a man standing in the bedroom of her apartment at The Crossings apartment complex, located at 7867 NW Roanridge Road in Kansas City. That man, later identified as Townsend, forced her to her car, where he raped her. He later forced her to return to her apartment, where he repeatedly raped and sodomized her over a period of several hours. At one point during the assaults, the victim screamed and Townsend grabbed the her by the neck, choked her, and threatened to kill her.
Townsend fled the next morning. The victim immediately went to a hospital, where medical personnel completed a sexual assault examination. She had numerous bruises and injuries.
The case generated substantial attention at the time, including the posting of a composite sketch of the suspect on a billboard along I-29.
That billboard, funded by Crime Stoppers and Lamar Advertising, was the first billboard of an unknown suspect posted in the Kansas City area. A cold-case DNA match ultimately revealed Townsend as her attacker. Zahnd said the DNA match was one in 20 quadrillion.
Zahnd credited the “dogged determination” of Detective Catherin Johnson of the Kansas City Police Department, who was the lead detective in the case.
“Detective Catherine Johnson refused to be stopped by the dead ends she encountered in this case,” he said. “Fortunately, her dogged determination combined with modern DNA science led to the capture and conviction of this very dangerous rapist. Hopefully, he will never be free to hurt another woman.”
Townsend, who represented himself during the trial, faces up to life in prison for the crimes of forcible rape and forcible sodomy. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 29.
Johnson, who now teaches sex crimes investigation techniques for the North Carolina Department of Justice, received the Sara Andrasek Memorial Award, given annually by Zahnd’s office, in 2012 for her work in this and other high-profile sex crimes in Kansas City.