SANTA ANA, Calif. – A sexual predator was convicted this week by a California jury of multiple sex-related crimes that occurred more than two decades ago. These were offenses that he tried to pin on his identical twin brother. Kevin Michael Konther accused his sibling of raping a 9-year-old girl as well as a woman jogging in south Orange County, and years later of assaulting the 12-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. But on Thursday the jury concluded he was guilty.
Konther, 57, of Highland, was convicted by the Orange County jury on two felony counts of forcible rape, two felony counts of forcible oral copulation, one felony count of a forcible lewd act upon a child, and one felony count of a lewd and lascivious act with a minor. Furthermore, the jury found true that Konther kidnapped both rape victims and committed each of the charged offenses against multiple victims, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported.
Detectives with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department began using investigative genetic genealogy in 2018 in order to develop leads on the unknown suspect in the 1995 and 1998 rapes. As the investigations developed, new allegations came forth that the daughter of a former girlfriend had been molested by Konther.
Both Konther and his identical twin brother were arrested in January 2019 once the investigative genetic genealogy connected the siblings to DNA collected from the rape of a 9-year-old girl in Lake Forest as well as the 1998 rape of a female jogger who was pulled into the bushes and sexually violated in Mission Viejo, according to the news outlet.
Investigators had a dilemma on their hands since identical twins share the same DNA. However, conversations covertly recorded between the brothers following their arrests revealed multiple incriminating statements made by Konther, including acknowledgements that he committed the horrible crimes.
As a result, Konther was charged with both rapes in addition to molesting his former girlfriend’s daughter while she pretended to be asleep between 1999 and 2003 after the secretively recorded calls incriminated the defendant, while his twin brother expressed complete shock over the arrest.
Konther is now convicted of all the crimes to which he was charged, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported.
“What monster jumps out of the bushes to rape an innocent little girl and then forces her to walk home naked while this child desperately tries to cover herself with anything she can until she can get home to the safety of her mother’s arms?” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “And when he doesn’t get caught he pulls another jogger into the bushes and rapes her. And when he doesn’t get caught again, he preys on an innocent young girl who has no choice but to be in the same house as him. Without the advances in DNA technology, we may have never been able to solve this case. But because of DNA and the persistent pursuit of justice by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange District Attorney’s Office, this monster has a name – and his name is Kevin Konther.”
Consequently, Konther faces a maximum sentence of 140 years to life in prison following his conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 21.
