Sexual assault.
Three days after the rape, Mike Alden called Jennifer in to do a photo lineup.
He lay these six pictures down on the table,
said the perpetrator may or may not be one of them, and told her to take her time.
Does she say immediately that's him?
No, she studied each photograph.
I can remember almost feeling like I was at an SAT test.
You know, we start narrowing down your choices.
You can discount A and B.
Oh, like multiple choice?
Exactly.
According to the police report, Jennifer studied the pictures for five minutes.
She picked up Ron's photograph and said, that's the man who raped me.
And you must have said, are you sure?
And she said, yes.
Yeah. Oh, yes, certainly.
Ronald Cotton heard the news from his mother's boyfriend.
He told me, so Ron, he said, police are looking for you.
And I said, for what?
And he told me, for rape.
I said, man I didn't commit such a crime like that.
Did you panic?
I didn't panic, I was trying to figure out, you know, why?
He comes in and gives me a very detailed account of where he was, who he was with that night.
As it turns out, that was a false alibi.
I realized later that I had got my weekends confused.
And so therefore I gave them a reason to think that I was lying.
This was August 1st, 1984.
Right.
You go in to clear yourself, when did you actually leave?
I didn't.
He was locked up and days later put in a physical lineup.
I'm number five.
You scared?
I was very scared, nervous.
I was so nervous.
I was trembling.
You know, I felt my body just shaking.
They were asked to step forward, speak and step back.
I can remember looking to the detective and saying it's between four and five.
Can I have him do it again?
And then she knew, it was number five, Ronald Cotton.
Did you feel absolutely certain?
Absolutely certain.
Did anybody say to you, good job?
Well, what was said to me afterwards was, that's the same person you picked out in the photo lineup.
So, in my mind, I thought, bingo, I did it right.
I did it right.
In a week-long trial the jury heard about Ronald Cotton's faulty alibi.
His clothing that matched Jennifer's description
and a piece of foam found on her floor that seemed to come from one of his shoes.
And most powerfully they heard from Jennifer.
When they ask you, do you recognize the man who did this to you, do you point to him?
Absolutely.
It was Ronald Cotton.
She called my name, point a finger and I saw that's all it takes it seemed like.
What did that feel like?
It felt like someone pushing a knife through me.
It took the jury just forty minutes.
The verdict, guilty on all counts.
And he was sentenced to life and fifty years.