A new state law was used in the arrest of an alleged rapist in Lake Worth Beach.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the arrest of 33-year old Wolfey Brice was the first in the county since the House Bill 10-21 went into effect last summer.
It lowered the amount of DNA matches that needed to be made before taking a suspect into custody.
"You had to have three identifiers, three separate tests before this. Now, you only have to have two and then a third one comes at time of trial. So, we were able to do the two identifiers that we needed to have to match the law and took him into custody."
He says within two days of the sexual assault on an 18 year old woman in her bedroom last month, investigators had matched DNA from the scene to Brice's DNA, which was in a nationwide database.
Without the new law, that arrest likely wouldn't have come for at least another two days.
Photo: Mugshot/PBSO