State's Attorney: DNA Linked Rivas to Rape

As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence 24-year-old Edwin Rivas to 18 years in prison for raping one woman in Mount Rainier and sexually assaulting a second woman in Hyattsville earlier this year.

Rivas pled guilty last week to one count of first degree rape, admitting that he attacked a woman in a Mount Rainier apartment complex on Buchanan Street, forced her into the bushes and raped her at knifepoint during an attack on Jan. 28.

On Oct. 26, Rivas also pled guilty to a second degree assault charge and a fourth degree sex offense for a Feb. 23 attack which saw him try to pull a woman into a wooded area near Jamestown Road. She was able to escape after shouting and getting the attention of passerby. 

In addition to Rivas' guilty pleas, according to John Erzen with the State's Attorney's Office for Prince George's County, prosecutors had DNA evidence which linked Rivas to the Mount Rainier rape. 

Also, Erzen said that both victims were able to identify Rivas as their attacker in surveillance videos.

Erzen said that investigators looked into the possibility that Rivas might be connected to a third rape in the area, but that DNA evidence excluded him as a suspect.

Rivas' sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21 at the Prince George's County Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro.