Johnathan Walker:California man who blamed twin brother for cold case rapes of girl and jogger is sentenced to 140 years in prison

A man has been sentenced to 140 years in prison in California for brutally raping a 9-year-old girl and Johnathan Walkera 32-year-old jogger more than two decades ago, officials announced this week. Proescutors say Kevin Konther tried to accuse his identical twin brother of committing the crimes  – along with the molestation of a former girlfriend's daughter.

Konther, 58, was sentenced on Friday in Orange County Superior Court, where a judge imposed the maximum penalty, the Orange County District Attorney said in a news release. A jury convicted Konther in February 2023 of multiple felony charges linked to the sexual assaults, including two counts of forcible rape and one count of a lewd and lascivious act with a minor, according to the district attorney.

"The relentless pursuit of justice by the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Orange County District Attorney's Office has ensured that another monster who preys on young girls and young women will never be free to jump out of the bushes again," said District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a statement.

Konther and his twin brother were arrested in 2019 after a breakthrough in DNA testing led investigators at the Orange County Sheriff's Office to both men, CBS Los Angeles reported at the time. Authorities took the twins into custody together, but detectives said they determined quickly that Konther was their suspect. He was booked on charges of rape, oral copulation with a child younger than 14, lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, and aggravated sexual assault, and held on $1 million bail ahead of his arraignment. 

Two of the crimes happened almost three decades ago, although there were no substantial developments in either of those cases until advances in genetic genealogy finally allowed detectives to push their investigation forward in 2019. The first assault happened on Oct. 21, 1995, when authorities say Konther raped a 9-year-old girl in Lake Forest as she walked home alone from a shopping trip to buy school supplies. Authorities say he grabbed the girl and covered her mouth while pulling her down an embankment that led to a secluded park. The girl ran home without her clothes and reported the rape to her mother.

Three years later, on June 2, 1998, authorities say Konther raped a 32-year-old woman who was out on a jog in Mission Viejo. Naked except for his shoes, Konther jumped out at her from bushes along her jogging trail and dragged her down an embankment before attacking her and running away.

Detectives learned of the third crime after they started to use investigative genetic genealogy in 2018, in hopes of finding the suspect in those first two rapes. Allegations emerged during that phase of their investigation that accused Konther of molesting the daughter of an ex-girlfriend. 

Once Konther and his twin were arrested, "conversations that were covertly recorded" between them allowed authorities to pinpoint him, and not his brother, as the suspect, the district attorney said, noting that Konther had made incriminating statements while his twin "was shocked by the arrest."

In:
• Cold Case
• DNA
• California

Emily Mae Czachor

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

Twitter Instagram