[star-telegram.com]First rapist arrested under Molly Jane’s Law pleads guilty to Arlington sexual assault

A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault Wednesday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Jessie DeWayne Ray was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at gunpoint in an Arlington park in 2019. Ray recorded the assault on his iPhone and the video was discovered in May 2020 when Tyler police arrested him during a narcotics investigation. When Tyler police entered information from the video into an FBI database known as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, they found it was a match for the then-unsolved Arlington case.

[fox4news.com]New law inspired by Tarrant County case helps lead to rapist's capture

FORT WORTH, Texas - A Tarrant County judge sentenced a man to 25 years in prison for a 2019 sexual assault. Prosecutors say it was a new law that helped lead to the arrest.

Molly Jane’s Law was passed after the murder of a Fort Worth woman in 2017. Just months after the new law took effect, prosecutors say it was used to track down a sexual assault suspect who pleaded guilty Wednesday. The law was both inspired by a Tarrant County case and used to prosecute a Tarrant County case. It was on a trail at Arlington’s Canyon Park where a man, later identified as Jessie Dewayne Ray, attacked.

[star-telegram.com]Texas law named for Fort Worth woman Molly Jane leads to arrest in sexual assault case

Molly Jane Matheson made a difference.

This week, a year after a law was signed in her honor, a man wanted in a September 2019 sexual assault in an Arlington park has been arrested because of it.

Jessie D. Ray was arrested last month in Tyler during a narcotics investigation. After a search of his iPhone showed a video of a sexual assault, law enforcers put details about that attack into the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database.

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