At about 2 a.m. on June 25, 1986, a man crawled through a second story bedroom window of an apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He raped a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint. Afterward, he grabbed a Sony cassette radio with a broken handle. The victim, identified as K.C., pleaded with him to leave it behind as it belonged to her younger cousin. The man kept it as he fled out of the window.
K.C. told her aunt, with whom she was staying, about what happened and the police were called.
Less than an hour later, police arrested 29-year-old Gene Bibbins, who lived in a different building in the same apartment complex. Bibbins was stopped while walking in an alley, carrying a radio that matched the description of the stolen radio. He told police he had found it in the alley. Although the victim’s initial description was of a Black man with long curly hair and blue jeans, Bibbins had close-cropped hair and was wearing shorts.
Bibbins was put in the back of a police car which then had taken him to the apartment building where the crime occurred. He remained in the car with a flashlight illuminating his face while the victim identified him as her attacker.
The victim then was taken to a hospital where a rape kit was collected. Bibbins was charged with aggravated rape and aggravated burglary.
He went to trial in March 1997 in East Baton Rouge Parish District Court. K.C. testified and identified Bibbins as her attacker.
A forensic analyst said that spermatozoa was found on the vaginal samples from the rape kit. The semen on the vaginal swab, bed sheets, and the victim's underwear revealed the presence of Type B antigens. The analyst said that Bibbins could not be excluded as the source.
Annie Michelli, a fingerprint examiner for the Baton Rouge Police Department, testified that a fingerprint from a window fan in K.C.’s bedroom was “unidentifiable” and was therefore inclusive. Michelli testified she had submitted the print to the Louisiana State Crime Laboratory and her conclusion had been verified.
On March 28, 1987, the jury convicted Bibbins of aggravated rape and aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1998, Bibbins started writing the Innocence Project. His case was eventually accepted and the biological evidence was located at the East Baton Rouge Parish District Court. At the time, Bibbins was the first inmate to win access to biological evidence under Louisiana’s postconviction DNA testing statute.
In November 2002, the biological evidence was subjected to DNA testing. Bibbins was excluded as the contributor of spermatozoa. The prosecution sent the evidence for a second round of testing at a different laboratory. In December 2002, DNA testing confirmed that Bibbins was not the perpetrator.
During the re-investigation of the case, the defense discovered that the state crime laboratory analyst who examined fingerprint at Michelli’s request, Cybil Guidry, had concluded that Bibbins was not the source of the print. That report had not been turned over to the prosecution or the defense prior to Bibbins’s trial.
On March 1, 2003, Bibbins’s convictions were vacated, the charges were dismissed and he was released.
Bibbins subsequently was awarded $250,000 in state compensation. He also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Baton Rouge Police Department that was settled in 2008 for $1.15 million.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 03-23-2026
