On March 31, 1981, a man came to the home of a 23-year-old woman in Jacksonville, North Carolina, after the woman advertised a waterbed for sale. They went to the basement to look at part of the bed and then to a bedroom upstairs to look at the rest of the bed. When the woman, identified as M.R., entered the bedroom and turned around, the man pulled out a gun and threatened to kill her. He taped her hands behind her back, taped her eyes shut, gagged her with her underwear, and tied her feet together. He raped her, stole her jewelry and left.
M.R. freed herself and called her husband, who came home and called the police. She was taken to the hospital, where a rape kit was collected. She told the police that her attacker was a bespectacled white man 30 to 40 years old, between 5 feet 7 inches and 6 feet tall, with a beard. She said his hair was combed forward.
On April 7, 1981, M.R. was hypnotized in an attempt to help her recall more details of her attacker’s appearance and his car.
In August 1981, the police created photographic lineups containing men whose features resembled the description that M.R. had given. In the third lineup, M.R. selected the photograph of 32-year-old Leo Waters, who had been arrested on a charge of making obscene phone calls. M.R. said she could not be sure unless she saw the full body of her attacker.
On August 18, 1981, M.R. was taken to Onslow County District Court, where Waters and a dozen other men were waiting for their cases to be called. M.R. identified Waters as her attacker.
He was arrested that day and charged with rape, sexual offense, armed robbery and kidnapping.
Waters went to trial in Onslow County Superior Court in January 1982. M.R. identified him as her attacker. She told the jury that she was “absolutely positive” that Waters was the rapist.
“There is no doubt in my mind,” M.R. testified. “He is the man.”
A forensic analyst testified that spermatozoa were found on items in the rape kit, including the vaginal swab. The analyst said that serological testing revealed blood type antigens consistent with type O blood. Both Waters and M.R. were type O. The analyst said about 35.5 percent of the population could have been the source of the biological evidence, including Waters.
Waters testified and denied committing the crime. He said that he worked the midnight shift on March 31 at a fuel-systems manufacturer, came home, ate breakfast and went to bed. He denied ever wearing glasses or combing his hair forward.
On January 19, 1982, the jury convicted Waters of rape, sexual offense, armed robbery and kidnapping. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
In May 1983, the North Carolina Supreme Court vacated the kidnapping conviction for insufficient evidence and affirmed Waters’s remaining convictions and prison sentence.
Years later, Waters filed a post-conviction motion for DNA testing. Attorney Mark Raynor took on the case in February 2002. A judge granted the request for DNA testing and in January 2003, Laboratory Corporation of America reported in January 2003 that Waters was excluded as the source of the spermatozoa.
Raynor filed a motion for a new trial. On January 23, 2003, Waters’s convictions were vacated and he was released from prison.
In October 2003, the prosecution submitted the evidence for further testing at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Laboratory. The testing confirmed the initial finding that Waters was excluded.
On November 20, 2003, the prosecution dismissed the case.
Raynor later filed an application with North Carolina Governor Michael Easley seeking a pardon.
The DNA profile obtained during the testing was submitted to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and it was associated with Joel Bill Caulk who was was in prison in Massachusetts after being convicted of armed robbery, aggravated rape and assault. On August 16, 2005, an Onslow County grand jury indicted Caulk for the attack on M.R. Caulk’s criminal record dated to 1970 when he was convicted in three sexual assaults in San Diego. Caulk was known in California as the “want-ad rapist,” for choosing victims through newspaper ads listing household items for sale. In 1987, he had been convicted in Maine for the 1981 shooting death of a real estate agent. District Attorney Dewey Hudson said it was unlikely that Caulk would be taken to trial.
The following day, August 17, 2005, Governor Easley granted Waters a pardon. In 2008, the state of North Carolina awarded Waters $750,000 in compensation.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-29-2026
