North Jersey inmate charged in Phila. rapes

A man in prison in North Jersey has been charged with rape, robbery, burglary and related offenses for two sexual assaults committed years ago after a forensic investigation matched his DNA to evidence from crime scenes in Philadelphia, police said yesterday.

Nathaniel Stallworth, 40, was in the Northern State Prison in Newark on a burglary conviction when Philadelphia detectives from the Special Victims Unit ran DNA evidence from the two old cases through a national database, police said. Authorities have filed an arrest warrant for him.

The first attack happened in Germantown about 5:30 a.m. Jan. 16, 1998, in the 400 block of West Clapier Street. A man armed with a knife entered a bedroom where a woman was sleeping and threatened to kill her and her children if she said anything, police said. The assailant sexually assaulted the woman and robbed her of $23 before fleeing through her bedroom window.

The second assault happened in East Falls about 3:30 a.m. July 2, 2002, in the 3300 block of Tilden Street. A gun-wielding man entered a bedroom where a woman and her boyfriend were sleeping and demanded money. The man tied up the boyfriend, took the woman to the living room, and raped her. He then took money and items from the home before fleeing, police said.

- Barbara Boyer