(Reuters) - An Oklahoma suspect in multiple rapes who was arrested after a car crash that left him in a coma died at a hospital on Tuesday hours before he was to be formally charged, prosecutors said.
Desmond La-Don Campbell, 30, was suspected of committing at least eight sexual assaults. He was arrested last week after evidence linked him to the attacks.
He had been in the hospital since a June 29 single-car crash. Police said the traffic accident took place just minutes after he sexually assaulted a Tulsa-area woman.
"We were prepared to file charges today, but charges will not be filed on someone who is deceased," Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris told a news conference.
DNA provided by one rape victim and collected at two crime scenes matched that of Campbell, a convicted felon whose DNA was in a Oklahoma Department of Corrections database.
Police did an Internet search of Campbell and saw that his name came up in an item about the car crash.
Most of the victims were single women in their late 50s to late 70s and home alone at the time of the attacks, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said Campbell would have been charged with six counts of robbery, seven counts of first-degree burglary and 10 counts of sexual assault, which includes rape and rape by instrumentation.
"The death of Mr. Campbell will not provide justice for his victims in a court of law, but justice he will face by a higher power," said Kunzweiler.
(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Cooney)
