Suspect Jailed in Rapes of 20 Girls, Women

Police searching the mid-Wilshire District for a rapist who has assaulted 20 girls and young women arrested a 28-year-old construction worker who, they said Thursday, closely resembles descriptions of the attacker given by his victims.

Ronald Nelson Melvin, who officers said was on parole from a New York City manslaughter conviction, was seized at 3:40 p.m. Wednesday as he loitered outside the locked outer door of an apartment building in the 300 block of S. Catalina Street.

Detectives said they learned later that a girl who attends Virgil Junior High School at 152 N. Vermont Ave., about 10 blocks away, lives in the building. In the 20 cases, dating to August, 1984, five of the teen-age girls attacked were students at the school.

In most cases, the assailant followed his victim into her secured apartment building, brandished a knife and forced her into an isolated area of the apartment complex, detectives said.

All the victims were between 10 and 17 years old, except for one 8-year-old girl and two young women in their early 20s, police said.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates told a press conference Thursday afternoon that, so far, six of the victims had identified a picture of Melvin as that of the man who attacked them. Police declined to release a photograph of Melvin, pending attempts by the remaining victims to identify the suspect.

Melvin’s arrest came when Central Division Sgt. Hampton Davis, part of a 40-man task force working the case, was patrolling the area and spotted him outside the apartment building.

Davis told reporters that because Melvin closely resembled one of the composites drawn by police artists from descriptions of the attacker by his victims and was hanging around outside a locked apartment building, he called him over to his car for a closer look.

It was then that Davis noticed a scar on Melvin’s face, matching one some of the victims had described.

David said Melvin was “very cooperative” and, when asked, took the officer to where his 1976 Plymouth was parked a half a block away. In the car, Davis said, he saw “distinctive items of clothing” similar to those that some victims said were worn by the attacker.

Search warrants were obtained for the car and two residences where Melvin had stayed with friends--one on Westerly Terrace in the Silver Lake district, another on 103rd Street in Inglewood. A fourth search warrant was executed for Melvin’s current home in the 700 block of East 51st Street, police said.

Detectives said evidence, described only as “a distinctive jacket, sweat shirt and two knives,” was seized in each of the four searches.

The detectives said Melvin, who was born in New York City, was arrested in connection with the death of a 17-year-old girl there 10 years ago. He served about seven years in prison for manslaughter and was paroled three years ago. Details of the New York case were not immediately available.

Gates said Melvin was booked Wednesday without bail for investigation of rape and parole violation. Detectives hope to be able to provide the district attorney’s office with enough evidence to file charges by Monday, the chief added.

A check of Los Angeles court records Thursday indicated that Melvin was arrested in 1984 after propositioning a woman vice officer at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Alexandria Avenue. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and 80 hours of community service.

Worked at Hospital

He performed his community service at the Burlington Convalescent Hospital, 845 S. Burlington Ave., according to Phyllis Summers, the director of the referral department at the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles at 621 S. Virgil Ave.

Melvin’s main responsibilities were washing dishes and serving trays to the patients, said Mary McGowan, a hospital official.

Neighbors in Silver Lake, where Melvin reportedly often lives with a woman friend, characterized Melvin as always polite and friendly.

“I didn’t see any violent qualities in him,” said one man who declined to give his name.

Melvin’s neighbors said they last saw him Wednesday, but said they could always hear him practicing the saxophone.

Times staff writer Terry Pristin contributed to this story.