On January 27, 2022, after two hours of deliberations, a Dauphin County jury convicted Ronald Jenkins, age 48, formerly of Harrisburg, of rape of an unconscious person and kidnapping.  Police charged Jenkins with these offenses for an incident that occurred on February 14 to 15, 2017.  On February 15, 2017, a 27-year-old woman reported to Swatara Township Police that she had awoken at the Roadway Inn naked from the waste down. She had no idea how she had gotten to the motel.  She explained to the police that her last memory was from the night before when she was at her home in Lower Paxton Township with her husband and the defendant, a family friend. Investigation by Lower Paxton Police Detective Gregory Langley revealed that the woman was attacked after her husband went to bed that night. She testified before the jury that the defendant struck her in the face and slammed her body into a wall causing a hole in the wall.  She had no recollection after that until waking up in the motel room occupied by the defendant. 

Police were able to secure surveillance from the motel showing the defendant carrying the victim's lifeless body being carried into the room over his shoulder. During telephone calls between the defendant and the woman’s husband, intercepted by the police, the defendant repeatedly asserted that nothing happened in the motel room, referring to himself as an “innocent bystander”.  During trial, the jury listened to a recorded statement with the defendant, who spoke with the police with an attorney.  Again the defendant denied any type of sexual contact with the woman. In late 2018, police received results from the Pennsylvania State Police DNA Laboratory which matched the defendant’s DNA profile with DNA obtained using vaginal swabs taken from the victim at the hospital.  The defendant was finally apprehended in New Jersey in July 2019.  The prosecuting attorney, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle gave notice of the Commonwealth's intent to seek a mandatory minimum sentence of at least ten years of imprisonment. Jenkins faces this mandatory minimum because he has a prior conviction for a felony crime of violence, specifically aggravated assault.  Judge William T. Tully set sentencing for March 31, 2022, and increased the defendant's bail to $100,000.  

The video exhibit showing Jenkins carrying the unconscious victim into the motel is posted on this page.