Alleged Victims Testify As Wilmerding Rape Suspect Faces Judge
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A man accused of raping multiple women in Wilmerding appeared in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing where two victims from two separate incidents were questioned before the judge.
One victim was from February 2014, and the other from July 2015.
The alleged suspect in both incidents, 31-year-old Lawrence Cook, smiled and shook his head when each victim testified during the hearing.
Most recently, Cook was charged in February with the rape of a woman in the 600 block of Middle Avenue in November of 2015.
It was this case that led investigators to two other cases in Wilmerding - the one from February and the one from July.
In the February incident, the victim testified that she was walking home with a friend when Cook approached them from the other side of the street.
She says he pulled a gun on them, and then took their phones and her friend's wallet before leading the victim to a dark yard and allegedly raping her and hitting her in the head several times with his gun.
In the July incident, the victim testified that she encountered Cook in a bar on her way home from work around 2 a.m.
She needed to use a phone to call her boyfriend because she says she was lost.
She says Cook led her outside and held a gun to her waist while they were walking down an alley. Then, she says, he had her perform oral sex and proceeded to rape her before taking off with $300 she had on her.
"One thing I was looking for was the DNA. I didn't hear any evidence about the DNA. I didn't hear any testimony about the DNA evidence. That will be something that's interesting when we get discovery back to determine if there's a DNA link," Cook's attorney, Blaine Jones, said.
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The judge ordered that all charges against Cook be held for court.
He faces multiple charges including rape, aggravated assault and sexual assault.
Cook's formal arraignment is scheduled for August 11.
