Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 49, faces charges in three cases across North Texas.
By Tom Steele
The Dallas Morning News
A man already jailed in connection with a pair of decade old sexual assault cases now faces a charge in a 2003 attack in Arlington.
Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 49, has been in custody at the Collin County jail since Jan. 15, several days after he was arrested in Crawford County, Ark. He faces two counts of sexual assault and one count of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a felony, and his total bail is set at $1.1 million.
Wheat does not have an attorney listed in court records.
Arlington police obtained the burglary warrant Monday after determining that Wheat’s DNA matched evidence from their case, they said.
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, the victim was in her home early Sept. 17, 2003, when a man broke in and tried to assault her. Police took evidence from the home, but the case was later suspended.
Years later, the sexual assault kit from the case was retested, and
Arlington police learned in 2018 that DNA from their case matched three sexual assault cases from Coppell, Plano and Shady Shores.
Those assaults were part of a string of four attacks on women from November 2010 to October 2011, including an attempted sexual assault in Plano, that targeted alumnae of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. No DNA was collected in the attempted assault, Plano police have said.
Plano police identified Wheat as a suspect after DNA from their case was submitted for genealogical research, the affidavit says. Authorities later spoke to his ex-wife, who said that he was the man seen in surveillance footage from a gas station calling one of the victims days after she was attacked.
According to the affidavit, Wheat’s ex-wife said he was working for a security company in 2003. That company installed the Arlington victim’s alarm system, police said.
At the time of the later attacks, the ex-wife said, he was working for a financial services company. That company owned a credit card processing company used by a group that the other victims were associated with, the affidavit says.
Arlington police Chief Al Jones said in a written statement that he was glad the 2003 victim would have closure.
“We will never give up hope to fight for victims no matter how long it takes,” he said.
