~ This is the first conviction resulting from Herring’s PERK backlog project; In November, Dyron Williams, Sr. of Spotsylvania was charged after he was identified by testing a 2012 PERK kit ~

SPOTSYLVANIA, VA (August 27, 2020) – Attorney General Mark R. Herring and Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger L. Harris today announced that Dyron R. Williams, Sr., 26, of Spotsylvania County pled guilty to child abuse and neglect after being identified and charged as part of Attorney General Herring’s PERK kit testing project. Williams, who is currently incarcerated on separate charges, was sentenced to 5 years with 3 years, 6 months suspended, to run consecutively with his current sentence. This is the first conviction resulting from Attorney General Herring’s PERK backlog elimination project.

Williams was charged in November after being identified from DNA in a PERK kit collected in 2012 that was tested as part of Attorney General Herring’s project to eliminate Virginia’s rape kit backlog. The DNA profile developed from the kit was uploaded to the national DNA database and identified Williams as the source of the DNA. Williams was served with warrants for his current charges at the Caroline Correctional Unit where he was incarcerated for unrelated charges.

“This case shows why we worked so hard to eliminate Virginia’s backlog and test every single PERK kit,” said Attorney General Herring. “Testing these kits and entering the DNA into the national database help law enforcement identify suspects, link crimes committed by unknown or known suspects, make our communities safer, and hold individuals who commit these heinous crimes accountable. I’m really proud that my team and I were able to play a role in helping to bring this individual to justice. I want to thank Sheriff Harris and his team for investigating this case and the Department of Forensic Science and our other law enforcement partners for their help and dedication on this project.

“I am pleased with the progress on all the untested kits particularly with the case involving Dyron Williams. The dedication of the office and Detective P. Harper shows that these victims will never be forgotten,” said Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger Harris.

This is the first conviction resulting from the effort led by Attorney General Herring along with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and local law enforcement agencies to eliminate a backlog of thousands of untested PERK kits, some of which were decades old. Several dozen additional cases remain under review or investigation by law enforcement agencies around the Commonwealth.

Last month, Attorney General Herring announced the completion of his project to eliminate Virginia’s rape kit backlog. As part of Attorney General Herring’s initiative, 2,665 previously untested rape kits have been tested, including kits that had gone untested for decades. According to End the Backlog, a National initiative advocating for changes in the way PERKs are handled, Virginia is just the seventh state in the country to eliminate its rape kit backlog.

The PERK testing initiative is just one part of Attorney General Herring’s larger effort to change the culture around sexual violence in Virginia. In addition to eliminating the rape kit backlog, he has invested in training to make trauma-informed, survivor-centered responses the new standard, has worked with DFS to launch the state’s first electronic statewide PERK tracking system, and has brought on additional personnel to support survivors.