Accused serial rapist John Daly enters the courtroom in the Cochise County Courthouse during a proceeding in 2021. Daly's case is expected to be moved to Maricopa County, where he is facing numerous related charges.
Accused serial rapist John Daly enters the courtroom in the Cochise County Courthouse during a proceeding in 2021. Daly's case is expected to be moved to Maricopa County, where he is facing numerous related charges.
The trial for a suspected serial rapist who is also a retired Border Patrol agent will likely take place in Maricopa County, a prosecutor said.
In a brief hearing in Cochise County Superior Court Judge Timothy Dickerson’s courtroom Monday, Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre said a trial date has already been slated for defendant John Daly in Maricopa County on the three rape cases he has lodged against him there.
While that trial date will probably be continued, McIntyre said the same witnesses who will testify against Daly in Maricopa also can testify against him in the rape case that Daly has pending in Bisbee. McIntyre said witnesses from the Bisbee case may also act as witnesses for Maricopa.
Neither Dickerson nor Tucson-based attorney Lynne Cadigan — who is representing the rape victim in the Bisbee incident — opposed the possibility of combining all the cases for one trial in Maricopa.
There are four rape cases pending against Daly, 59. Three are from Maricopa County and one is from Bisbee.
Daly, dubbed the “East Valley Rapist” years ago before investigators knew his identity, was arrested in May 2021 at his Hereford residence and charged with three of eight sexual attacks police say occurred in Maricopa County in 1999. A rape in Bisbee that occurred in 2001 was attributed to Daly after DNA evidence gathered in the incident matched DNA in the three Maricopa cases, McIntyre said.
Detectives with Mesa Police — the lead agency in Maricopa — said in May there were eight rapes committed between 1999 and 2001 in which the suspect had demonstrated similar behavior. Only three cases could be connected through DNA.
A statement released in May 2021 by Mesa Police showed Daly was identified as the possible suspect in February 2021 via DNA samples that were developed through the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. In April 2021, after testing the DNA, it was found that Daly was linked to two rapes in the East Valley, authorities said.
Additionally, police were able to determine that Daly had lived in the neighborhoods where the rapes had occurred, and he was charged with a third rape in that area.
After the DNA link surfaced in April, investigators from Bisbee, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler began comparing information on their respective cases and conducting interviews. The FBI assisted, as did the Border Patrol, Mesa Police said.
After several weeks, Bisbee became the fourth case against Daly after the DNA was tested, investigators said.
In each of the attacks, police said Daly entered the victims’ residences, blindfolded them and raped them.
Daly is a former supervisor of the Border Patrol station in Douglas. He retired about four years ago.
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