PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The 21-year-old man accused of raping a woman at gunpoint in the middle of the day in Norristown Farm Park has pleaded guilty to the charges.
Mason Hall, of West Norriton, was 19 when he was arrested — more than two years after the attack in the park, which happened around 10:30 in the morning on Aug. 1, 2017.
Prosecutors say then 17-year-old Hall snuck up behind a woman on a trail, wrapped his arm around her neck, and pointed a gun at her head. He told her to walk off the trail into a secluded clearing, where he assaulted her.
At the time, prosecutors said the woman was so scared she waited several minutes before calling 911.
Police scoured the park with tracking dogs and even pulled surveillance video, but they couldn’t find a suspect. The DNA didn’t hit any law enforcement databases, but it did hit on distant relatives in private DNA databases.
After investigators narrowed it down to Hall, they learned about one month after the rape in the park, he was arrested for smashing a headlight with a hammer. He cut his hand, and the bloody hammer was still in evidence. When they tested the DNA on that hammer, it was a match.
Hall will be sentenced on Sept. 27. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 44 years in prison.