State vs. Adrian Cortes
Aggravated Sexual Assault
Lead: Deborah Bankhead
2nd Chair: Leighton D’Antoni
DA Investigator: Jon Wakefield & Kelly Paul
DA Victim Advocate: Adriana Sellers, Roquel Mayhorn, MacKenzie Kile
Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department & Dallas County DA’s Office SAKI Unit
In 2001, a woman was loading her 3-year-old toddler into his car seat in the parking lot of their apartment complex, when an unknown man approached her from behind and forced her into the vehicle with a sharp object pointed at her back. He covered her face with her son’s baby blanket and drove her to an unknown location where he proceeded to sexually assault her all while her child was in the backseat. The man then drove to a final location where he left the woman, her son, and the car and fled the scene.
The surviving victim reported the sexual assault immediately and went to the hospital where a sexual assault examination took place, however, the kit from that 2001 examination went untested for nearly two decades.
After 18 years, as a part of the Sex Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) program at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, the kit was finally tested in 2019 and a case-to-case match provided a new investigative lead for law enforcement. The case-to-case match came from an unrelated, unsolved sexual assault from 1996. In that case, a young, pregnant woman was walking to the bus stop early in the morning on her way to work, when an unknown man, wearing a ski mask, came up behind her, covered her eyes with a jacket, and put a gun to her head. He threatened to kill her if she screamed. He then dragged her to a nearby field and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint and then fled the location. Again, the surviving victim immediately reported the sexual assault and went to the hospital the same day. A sexual assault examination was performed, however, because there were no workable leads or suspects, the case went cold.
Years later, the defendant’s DNA was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) as a result of an unrelated conviction. It finally provided the missing link to connect the two sexual assaults and gave a face to the unknown man who attacked these women.
GUILTY and sentenced to 60 years in prison
State vs. Byron Nelson
Driving While Intoxicated 3rd or More
Lead: Harley Anagnostis
2nd Chair: Gabriela Sanchez
DA Investigator: Aleciah Taylor
DA Legal Assistant: Mildred Gibbs
Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department
The defendant previously served a prison sentence for Driving While Intoxicated 3rd or More. In June of 2022, he was again driving while intoxicated when he crashed into a young mother with her toddler in the backseat, shattering the back windows and crushing the rear of the vehicle.
GUILTY and sentenced to 10 years in prison + $10,000 fine
State vs. Omni Williams
Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child
Lead: Kalle Riner
2nd Chair: Blake Penfield
DA Investigator: Laura Brakefield
DA Victim Advocate: Flor De La Fuente
Investigating Agency: Duncanville Police Department
The defendant was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 13.
GUILTY and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Human Trafficking Task Force -- This is a Homeland Security Dallas-led investigation with assistance from the HSI Dallas Special Response Team, HSI San Antonio (TX), and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
Two HSI Dallas (TX)-led operations resulted in the arrest of 187 individuals for sex trafficking and related federal and state charges.
o In September 2023, HSI Dallas established a large-scale, multi-agency task force to target and suppress the demand that fuels sex trafficking in the Dallas, TX, area.
- Over a five-day period, law enforcement officers posed as commercial sex workers on various solicitation websites and engaged in conversations with interested customers and traffickers.
- Once a potential customer agreed to the services and a price, they were directed to a meeting location where law enforcement was waiting to take them into custody.
o During the five-day operation, HSI Dallas arrested 134 individuals and seized a variety of drugs and firearms. Some of those arrested included known human traffickers, people in positions of public trust (teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, etc.), violent criminals, and convicted sex offenders.
o In January, the task force conducted a smaller two-day operation where HSI Dallas arrested another 53 individuals including laborers, engineers, business professionals, truck drivers, attorneys, and accountants.
