Cold-Case Rapist Sentenced to 15 Years

June 30, 2020 – A 55-year-old man linked by his DNA to a pair of rape attacks that occurred more than 30 years ago was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison without the possibility for parole, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Defendant Jimmy Love pled guilty to two counts of aggravated rape stemming from incidents that occurred in July of 1986 and in November of 1987. He was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge W. Mark Ward. He also will be on the Sex Offender Registry and on Community Supervision for life.

Love was indicted as an unknown John Doe in 2015 when his DNA profile was identified from rape kit of one of his two victims. The kits in both cases were part of a large backlog that were not examined until years later.

In 2017 the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) identified Love as the perpetrator in the 1986 case. He was indicted in 2018 on the second rape when he again was identified through DNA evidence.

Love, a former Memphian, was extradited from a Florida prison where he is serving four life sentences for a series of sex crimes, assaults and other violent offenses. He apologized to one of the victims who attended the hearing Tuesday.

The Memphis cases were handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Gavin Smith of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit which handles cases of rape, child sex abuse, severe physical abuse of child victims, elder abuse and vulnerable adult abuse.