A 22-year-old Saint Paul man is facing a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge after investigators say a DNA match linked him to a violent assault in a Saint Paul alley in April, months before he was already sitting in jail on unrelated charges. Corey Jashaun Ashford was ordered held on $250,000 bail after prosecutors say Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension analysts matched his DNA profile to genetic material collected during the victim's sexual assault examination.
According to MN Crime, the case began on April 25, when a woman was walking along Dale Street after an acquaintance's truck broke down and left her stranded. She encountered a man riding a BMX-style bike who, prosecutors allege, forced her into a nearby alley. The complaint states Ashford grabbed the woman's throat, demanded her belongings, and ordered her to pull down her pants and lean over a fence. She told investigators she struggled to breathe while he held her throat, urinated on herself out of fear, and believed he might kill her — a fear the complaint says he reinforced by threatening to kill her before saying, “Put it in.”
After the assault, prosecutors say Ashford fled on foot, leaving his bike behind, while the woman walked toward Sherburne Avenue and made her way to Hovander House for help. The facility, located at 1491 Sherburne Avenue, is a licensed nine-bed adult residential mental health crisis stabilization center operated by RHSC, Inc., according to Minnesota.gov, offering short-term stabilization meant to help people avoid psychiatric hospitalization. Saint Paul police responded to Hovander House after the woman arrived crying and visibly upset, per the complaint, and she was later transported to Regions Hospital, where swabs were collected during her sexual assault examination.
How the DNA Match Came Together Months Later
The case sat unresolved until Ashford was arrested on unrelated matters and an outstanding warrant on July 13, the same day the BCA reported it had matched the male DNA profile from the April assault to him. The station's report notes the BCA had already determined, per its own findings, that the DNA recovered from the woman's exam was a mixture from two people, including male DNA. The DNA analysis found the profile was more than 100 billion times more likely to come from the victim and Ashford than from the victim and an unrelated person.
That kind of statistical certainty comes from likelihood-ratio methods used to evaluate complex two-person DNA mixtures, a technique detailed by the National Institute of Justice, which notes the BCA's forensic labs process biological evidence for more than 400 law enforcement agencies statewide. Ashford's DNA profile was already on file because Minnesota law, under Statute § 609.117, requires anyone convicted of a felony-level offense to submit a biological specimen to the BCA for inclusion in its database, according to KARE 11. That database feeds into the FBI's national Combined DNA Index System, which as of June 2024 held more than 22.2 million offender and arrestee profiles and had aided over 694,000 investigations nationwide, per the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
When confronted about the April assault and the DNA match, Ashford denied recalling the incident and declined to discuss his July 13 arrest, instead responding only, “Okay,” according to the complaint cited by MN Crime. Police say they apprehended him, and he was ultimately ordered detained.
Pending Felony Cases Already on the Books
Ashford already faced multiple pending felony charges in the same jurisdiction when the sexual assault charge was filed. Ramsey County prosecutors filed separate felony domestic assault charges against him on July 6 and again on July 15, according to court records reviewed by MN Crime, meaning he was arrested on unrelated matters before the BCA's DNA match connected him to the April attack. He lives in Saint Paul, per the complaint.
The Saint Paul Police Department's Family and Sexual Violence Unit, which specifically investigates sexual assaults and domestic abuse cases while monitoring local predatory offenders, handled the case in coordination with Ramsey County prosecutors, per the department. The unit's work reflects a broader local pattern: domestic violence historically accounts for the single most frequent violent crime committed in Saint Paul, according to Minnesota Department of Public Safety metrics cited by the Minnesota Women's Press. The case also lands amid mixed violent crime trends across the Twin Cities in early 2026, with reported rapes and aggravated assaults rising and Minneapolis and Saint Paul recording 13 homicides by August, according to KSTP-TV.
What Ashford Faces if Convicted
Minnesota organizes criminal sexual conduct offenses by degree under Statutes § 609.342, § 609.343, § 609.344 and § 609.345, with first-degree conduct treated as the most severe. A first-degree conviction carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $40,000, with a presumptive mandatory minimum of 144 months, or 12 years, in cases where the act caused reasonable fear of great bodily harm, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. Lesser degrees carry lower maximum penalties: second-degree convictions carry up to 25 years, third-degree up to 15 years, and fourth-degree up to 10 years.
A conviction on the first-degree charge would also require Ashford to register as a predatory offender with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for a minimum of 10 years, or potentially for life, under Statute § 243.166. That registration requires maintaining verified address, vehicle, and employment records with law enforcement on an ongoing basis. Cases involving minors can trigger additional mandatory-minimum provisions and registration requirements, though nothing in the complaint indicates a minor was involved in this case.
