TYLER, Texas — Police documents have revealed DNA from the suspect's father and a beer can found in his trash can led to investigators finding a match and arresting a man accused of raping two women nearly 20 years ago in Tyler.
Jimmie Earl Gamble Jr., 40, of Tyler, remains in the Smith County Jail for two counts of sexual assault following his arrest on Wednesday. His bonds total $600,000.
His arrest comes after Tyler police received DNA evidence from the Texas Department Public Safety that identified him as a suspect in the separate rapes of two women in 2005.
According to an arrest affidavit, one of the rapes happened at Rose Rudman Park while the woman was walking on the trail .She reported that an unknown man approached her and forced her into the woods. The man sexually assaulted the woman, and investigators later sent the man's DNA and results from a sexual assault exam to the DPS lab.
The document stated that in the other sexual assault case, a woman was visiting friends at a Tyler apartment complex and smoking a cigarette. The man asked for a cigarette and to go on a walk with the woman. He asked to go on a walk so they did, but then he grabbed her, forced her into a laundry room and sexually assaulted her.
According to the affidavit, the man told her that she would regret it if she contacted the police department. DNA from the attack and the cigarettes were both collected and sent to the DPS lab for testing.
The affidavit states a match was found in the male DNA between the two incidents, which led investigators to determine it was the same suspect.
In January this year, a Texas Ranger, who was assigned to help the Tyler Police Department, said he received information that someone who has been convicted of a crime was related to the suspect. The DNA had a familial connection to Gamble Jr.'s father, Jimmie Earl Gamble, 64. Gamble Jr. was then identified as his son and officers learned where Gamble Jr. lives, the affidavit read.
Two Tyler police officers in August collected trash that was left for pickup in front Gamble Jr.'s residence. They tested DNA from a Bud Ice can and compared it to the DNA picked up from the scenes of the assaults in 2005, according to the document.
Once compared, results from the DPS lab showed the probability that Gamble Jr. and the suspect in the 2005 cases being a match were very high and police believe they are same person, the document stated.