Volunteer cold case detectives help put suspect in 1995 Arizona sexual assault case behind bars

PHOENIX – Volunteer detectives in Arizona helped put a suspect from a 28-year-old rape case behind bars, authorities announced Monday.

Gerald Todd Tubbs of Prescott Valley, now 52, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the parking lot of Prescott bar on Oct. 18, 1995, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim, who was 36 at the time, said she was attacked while getting into her car just after midnight outside the Pinon Pines bar off Highway 89A.

Detectives retrieved fingerprints and a DNA sample but were unable to identify a suspect.

Volunteer detectives with the YCSO Cold Case Unit started looking into the case in November 2022. The found that the fingerprint evidence was of no use, but the DNA hadn’t been submitted to CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), a national database the FBI started compiling in 1998.

The detectives asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to put the DNA profile into CODIS in July 2023. A hit came back matching Tubbs to the profile, YCSO said.

Based on the DNA evidence and an interview, Tubbs was indicted on a sexual assault charge and booked into Yavapai County jail on Nov. 2.

“The follow-through of the volunteer YCSO Cold Case detectives has once again helped with closure for a woman who has been waiting close to 30 years,” Sheriff David Rhodes said in a press release. “I cannot overstate how valuable these volunteers are to our agency, and I thank them for their hard work bringing justice to this victim.”

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