Police: Teen's recent arrest links him to previously unsolved home invasion, rape

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - A teenager has been charged with even more crime after a recent arrest linked him to a home invasion and rape which happened several years ago.

Police said Edricus Mayfield raped his victim in front of her children two years ago. Even though police recovered evidence from the scene, they were unable to make an arrest in the case until now.

It happened in 2016. Police said they recovered a palm print from the scene. They ran that through the database but at that time nothing came back. That detective didn't stop and even though two years passed, he had them run the print again, this time getting a match.

Mayfield, 17, was charged with home invasion, kidnapping, aggravated sexual battery, attempted rape, and two counts of child cruelty from a crime committed back in 2016. According to police, Mayfield broke into an apartment and raped a mother in front of her two children, ages 4 and 9.

"They were able to obtain prints from the scene when they took the incident report. However, they couldn't get anything to return at the time," said Cpl. Drew Reed, Gainesville Police Department.

Cpl. Reed said the detective never gave up on the case and recently asked to have the print ran again.

"I've never seen a match score as high as this one. It's almost near a perfect match," said Investigator Herman Cronic.

Police said two years ago when investigators first ran the print, Mayfield wasn't in the system, but a recent arrest on an unrelated charge changed that. Had the detective on the case not stayed on top of it, they may not have found the match.

"It's just up to the detective to be diligent and continue pursuing all avenues," said Reed.

Police said when they do matches they base them on 12 points to make a positive match, but this print caught investigators off guard.

"The chances it's not the person is like one in a million billion, that's your guy. On this particular print, I matched 60. The odds of it not being that person is astronomical," said Cronic.

Police said they are glad they got Mayfield off the streets.

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