Convicted Murderer Pleads Guilty in 1993 Rape, Robbery

Vincent Hall, 33, is accused of raping Cynthia Morton outside her Raleigh apartment on April 13, 1993. Morton was returning home from the movies when an unknown attacker pulled a handgun on her in a parking lot on Hidden Pond Drive, police said.

Authorities said the assailant robbed Morton of her purse and raped her.

“He told her that if she did not do what he told her to do, he would blow her head off,” Wake County Assistant District Attorney Jacquie Brewer said.

Raleigh police originally submitted the case to the State Bureau of Investigation in June 1994, but no DNA match was made. In March 2005, SBI agents retested evidence from the crime using new technology. 

Agents obtained a DNA profile of the suspect. They ran the unknown assailant's profile through a statewide DNA database and discovered it matched Hall.

"This case would not have been solved except for DNA," Brewer said.

Retired police major Dennis Lane helped investigate the rape.

"There's certainly hope that in every unsolved case, the perpetrator will eventually be identified and brought to justice," Lane said.

Morton was in the courtroom Monday when Hall pleaded guilty.

“I've lived with fear, knowing that someone that meant me harm was out there,” Morton said.

Hall was already serving a life sentence at Bertie Correctional Institute for the 1994 slaying of Kier Lohbeck, an employee at a Blockbuster Video on Avent Ferry Road in Raleigh.

Hall is eligible for parole in 10 years. Under the state's fair-sentencing guidelines, he will receive 12 years in prison for the rape and 14 years for the robbery. If Hall is paroled in Lohbeck's slaying, he will be required to serve the new sentences consecutively.

"My only ask, request, is that he not ever see daylight again," Morton said.