Cleveland man to be released from jail after DNA clears him of rape

Christopher Miller's 2003 conviction in a Cleveland Heights rape was vacated Thursday after new DNA evidence cleared him of sexual assault(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man who has spent 15 years in prison for a rape he says he didn't commit is expected to be released from jail Thursday after a judge granted him a new trial.

DNA evidence from the 2002 crime was retested earlier this month using modern technology not available at the time of trial and cleared Christopher Miller of rape, according to Cuyahoga County prosecutors and the Ohio Innocence Project.

Miller was arrested while in possession of the victim's cellphone the day after the woman said two men forced her into her Euclid Heights Boulevard apartment at gunpoint, raped her and stole her purse. The woman identified Miller as one of her attackers.

Miller said that he bought the phone from a stranger in exchange for drugs, and denied involvement in the crime.

DNA tests of material in a rape kit at the time of trial found only one contributor, who was not Miller. He was nonetheless convicted of rape, aggravated burglary and a host of other charges and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Two years later, police got a match for the DNA in the kit to a Richard Stadmire after Stadmire was convicted of a similar rape in Mayfield Heights a few weeks after the Cleveland Heights rape.

Miller has always maintained his innocence. The Ohio Innocence Project took up his case in 2015 and prosecutors agreed to re-test the DNA in 2017.

Those test results showed that DNA from a second man, Charles Boyd, was also present in the rape kit. Boyd, who testified as part of a plea deal in Stadmire's trial that he acted as a lookout for Stadmire and Miller in the Cleveland Heights attack, was indicted Thursday on charges of rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and perjury.

Boyd is currently being held in the Cleveland Heights jail on a $50,000 bond.

This post will be updated.

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