Biological evidence led CMPD’s Sexual Assault Cold Case detectives to identify and charge two suspects in separate sexual assaults from 2000.
Christopher Lynn Porter, 31, pled guilty yesterday and received a sentence of 12 1/2- 16 years for the June 6, 2000 rape of a woman off Milton Road on Barrington Drive.
In the early morning hours on June 4, 2000, the victim was walking home when Christopher Porter first approached her. A few minutes later he returned with a bandana covering his face, forced her behind the apartments and robbed & raped her at knife point.
Porter has been in custody in South Carolina on federal drug charges and was brought to Mecklenburg County to face charges of first degree rape, first degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Porter will be returned to the South Carolina prison to serve the remainder of that sentence. When released in 2011, he will be brought back to Mecklenburg County to serve the sentence in this case.
Michael Neville Watson, 33, was arrested on December 21, 2007 in New Orleans on a fugitive warrant for the June 11, 2000 sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl off Wilkinson Boulevard.
On June 11, 2000, two victims (father and daughter) were at a storage facility loading papers for delivery when the suspect, armed with a shotgun, approached them. The suspect restrained the father, robbed them and then drove around with the daughter before sexually assaulting her.
Watson was transported to Charlotte after his arrest in New Orleans and has been charged with two counts of first degree sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon. Watson is being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail with a $350,000 bond.
