Melvin Martin Thomas may have thought he'd gotten away with raping a 21-year-old college student in 1995, but justice has finally caught up to him.
As part of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's push to test old rape kits that sat for decades in storage with Detroit Police, DNA test results identified Thomas as one of two men who targeted the student at an ATM on Grand River and Outer Drive on the city's west side.
The young woman was kidnapped in her own vehicle, driven to an alley and raped by both men.
It only took a jury about an hour and a half to find Thomas guilty of First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct.
On Friday, Judge Thomas Cameron exceeded the guidelines and sentenced Thomas to 50 to 80 years in prison.
The victim in that 1995 case, who did not want her voice recorded, spoke before Thomas was sentenced and told the court that, over the years, she had hoped that the men who raped her had been killed by the kind of violence they created.
Thomas' co-defendant, Lorenzo Mario Anthony, has been charged, but declared not competent to stand trial.
Before Thomas was sentenced Friday, a 19-year-old woman who says he also raped her in September 2015 stood up to speak, but her mother had to talk for her because she was overcome by emotion.
Thomas has not been charged in the 2015 case.
