Beginning in June 1981 and lasting through July 1983, the Barton Creek Greenbelt area of Austin, Texas, was the location of seven rapes and one murder, a woman named Sally Tullos. Like Tullos, the victims were women who were walking or jogging in the area. The news media reported that police believed a single suspect, dubbed the “Barton Creek rapist,” was responsible.
The attacks stopped in the summer of 1983, after the police began patrolling the area on horseback, on foot and in squad cars. In an attempt to solve the crimes, the police attempted to identify someone who had been arrested at about the time the attacks ceased.
In the summer of 1984, the police focused on a 34-year-old Carlos Marcos Lavernia, a Cuban immigrant who had been living in Austin until he was arrested in January 1984 by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents for being in the country. illegally. He had been transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, awaiting disposition of his immigration charges.
A review of Lavernia’s record showed that he had been convicted in 1982 of indecency with a child and sentenced to 10 years on probation. On at least one occasion, Lavernia had been stopped, questioned, and released while in the Barton Creek area.
On August 29, 1984, a woman identified as L.W., who had been attacked on June 2, 1983, identified Lavernia in a photographic lineup and he was charged with aggravated sexual abuse. Lavernia also was charged with another rape when the victim of that attack identified him in a photographic lineup.
In January 1985, Lavernia went to trial in Travis County District Court for the attack on June 2, 1983.
L.W. testified that late in the afternoon on June 2, 1983, she set out on her daily jog through the Barton Creek Greenbelt. While heading east from her apartment toward the Gus Fruh Park, she walked past a Hispanic man, whom she had described as about 5 feet 6 inches, in his early to mid-twenties, wearing a maroon shirt and baggy maroon polyester pants. After jogging another half a mile, the victim decided to turn around and head home.
She said the same man emerged jogging behind her. He then grabbed her from behind and pressed a knife to her throat. She said he dragged her off the trail where she was forced to perform oral sex and then forced to her hands and knees, struck on the back of the head, and sexually assaulted. She identified Lavernia, who was 5 feet 3 inches tall, as her attacker.
The woman who was the victim in the other attack also testified and identified Lavernia as her attacker, although the charge for that crime was not before the jury at that time.
Serological testing had been conducted on semen from the rape kit taken from L.W. An analyst testified that the results were consistent with blood group markers of both L.W. and Lavernia. The analyst testified that 67% percent of people were excluded as possible perpetrators, but that Lavernia was included. In fact, experts would say years later that because the evidence was a mixture of semen and vaginal secretions and no foreign blood markers were identified, no people could be excluded because the victim’s blood group markers could have been masking the perpetrator’s blood group markers.
Lavernia did not testify, and the defense presented no evidence.
On January 23, 1985, Lavernia was convicted by the jury of aggravated sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The prosecution then dismissed the other rape charge.
His conviction was upheld on appeal. Lavernia, acting without a lawyer, filed several motions seeking DNA testing, but the motions were denied. He filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but that was denied.
In 1999, Austin police detective J.W. Thompson, who was continuing to investigate the Tullos murder, visited Lavernia in prison. He obtained a DNA sample to attempt to link Lavernia to the Tullos murder. During their conversation, Lavernia told Thompson that he was innocent of the rape of L.W. He later wrote Thompson a letter asking for help in obtaining DNA testing.
After Thompson cleared Lavernia of the Tullos murder, he talked to Bryan Case, a prosecutor in the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. The conversation took place as the office was contemplating a new policy to review murder and sexual cases in which identity was an issue and where DNA testing, had it been available, could have affected the verdicts.
Case decided to seek DNA testing in Lavernia’s case. He discovered the court records had been destroyed. However, he found a manila envelope stuffed with evidence in the case, including the swabs from the rape kit and the victim’s stained running shorts, in a Travis County warehouse. The evidence was sent out for DNA testing.
On September 8, 2000, the testing showed that Lavernia was excluded as the source of the semen.
On October 11, 2000, ruling on a writ of habeas corpus filed by Lavernia’s lawyers, Travis County District Judge Mike Lynch recommended that Lavernia’s conviction be vacated. The recommendation was sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
On November 29, 2000, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the writ, vacated Lavernia’s conviction, and remanded the case to Travis County District Court. The case was dismissed the following day.
Subsequently, Lavernia was awarded $435,000 in state compensation plus a monthly annuity of $8,900.
Lavernia remained in custody for three years after the exoneration, fighting to avoid deportation. Ultimately, in October 2003, he was released after the indecency case was dismissed, clearing the way for the end of his immigration battle.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-20-2026
