OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) - A St. Landry Parish jury has found an Opelousas man guilty of first-degree murder in the 1988 stabbing death of 29-year-old Brenda Dupont.
Media outlets report that 45-year-old Joenell Rubin’s DNA was matched in 2012 to semen found on Dupont when investigators discovered her body years earlier in her apartment.
The conviction follows two days of testimony in which Prosecutor Don Richard argued that Rubin had raped Dupont before stabbing her to death. Criminal pathologist Christopher Tate testified that Dupont had been stabbed 31 times.
Rubin had told Detective Dwain Grimmett he hadn’t known Dupont or visited her apartment.
Defense lawyer Roy Richard argued that the only thing prosecutors proved was that Rubin had sex with Dupont sometime before her murder.
Rubin will be sentenced Feb. 18. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.
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