DNA leads to SC man's conviction 35 years later of killing teen, raping his girlfriend

0 0 Julius Choudhury May 27, 2018 Edit this post

From, WYFF Greenville

After more than 30 years of thinking he got away with rape and murder, DNA led to the conviction of a South Carolina man.

Isaiah Gadson, 66, was found guilty Friday of all charges in the 1980 murder of David Krulewicz and the kidnapping, armed robbery and rape of Krulewicz's then-15-year-old girlfriend.

Prosecutors say Krulewicz and his girlfriend were on a date on Jan. 5, 1980 when they parked on Old Salem Road in a secluded area of northern Beaufort County.

Gadson approached Krulewicz's van and shot him three times through the passenger-side window, killing him, investigators said.

His girlfriend pleaded for her life as Gadson held a gun to her head and took $50 from her, prosecutors said.

Gadson made her lay down on the ground in front of the van and raped her, prosecutors said. He left her lying a short distance from Krulewicz’s body and walked away, she said. The girl then ran to her home, a short distance away, and called authorities.

Investigators pursued several leads over the years, but Gadson was never a suspect, prosecutors said.

In the late 1990s, Capt. Bob Bromage, of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, submitted articles of the victims’ clothing to the State Law Enforcement Division for DNA testing.

SLED developed a profile from DNA found on the rape victim’s pants and underwear.

As DNA profiling techniques improved, tests were repeated in the early 2000s.

The results were submitted to an FBI database, and a match came in 2016 when Gadson submitted DNA after his arrest for an unrelated violent crime in Beaufort.

"Two families endured not only the pain of these heinous crimes, but more than 35 years knowing the man who did this was probably still out there, possibly still roaming free," said prosecutor Hunter Swanson. "Today, justice and technology caught up with Isaiah Gadson.”

Prosecutors say Gadson had been in prison before and had a criminal history that included arrests for drug and gun violations, domestic violence and assault and battery.

He was charged with the sexual assault of a Beaufort woman in 1983 and eventually pleaded no contest to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in the case.

The victim in that case, who now lives in Virginia, testified in this week’s trial and revealed several similarities between the attack on her and the attack on Krulewicz’s girlfriend.

Gadson was sentenced to 50 years for the murder and 30 years each for criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery and kidnapping. Those sentences are to be served concurrently.