COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A 54-year-old man has been charged with raping a South Side teen as she walked home from a friend's house in 2014.
Darrel Welch, then 52, is accused of grabbing the 19-year-old victim from behind about 12:30 a.m. on June 3, 2014, before choking the woman and saying, "Shut up, b----. Don't say nothing. I got guns. Stop crying before I beat the f--- out of you."
Welch proceeded to rape the woman as she kicked, fought and vomited, Assistant State's Attorney Lesley Gool said during a bond hearing Wednesday.
In April of this year, a state laboratory was able to positively link DNA evidence collected shortly after the 2014 attack to Welch, who was extradited from Minnesota and arrested Tuesday, records show.
Welch is charged with criminal sexual assault and was ordered Wednesday held in lieu of $300,000 bail.
According to prosecutors, the victim was walking home from a friend's house when Welch grabbed her from behind in an alley in the 8400 block of South Phillips Avenue about 12:30 a.m. on June 3, 2014.
As the woman kicked and fought, prosecutors said, Welch threatened her with guns. He choked the woman until she began to lose consciousness, according to Gool.
Welch then raped the woman and forced her to perform oral sex, prosecutors said. The woman vomited during the attack, and Welch allegedly slapped her.
Welch eventually let the woman go, threatening to kill her if she told anyone what happened, Gool noted. The victim ran home, partially naked, woke up her mother and told her what had happened.
The victim's mother called 911, and a rape kit was collected at a nearby hospital, prosecutors said.
Nearly two years later, that rape kit would lead police to Welch, who has prior convictions in Illinois and Minnesota for robbery, armed robbery, assault, theft, retail theft, public indecency and battery, according to Gool.
Cook County Judge James Brown on Wednesday set bail at $300,000.
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