CALIFORNIA FIEND EYED IN NEW YORK SEX SLAYS

PFMLIT DNA, General, HANDYMAN, SENTENCING, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS WHO REOFFEND, SEX OFFENDERS WHO REOFFEND

New York Post/Larry Celona and Marsha Kranes

Luis Perez, a 40 year old handyman, was charged this week with two sex-attack strangulations inSan Jose dating back to the 1980s, and is a suspect in a similar 1996 murder in San Francisco. Citydetectives are digging through records of long unsolved sex assault slayings of women to see ifthey can be linked to the California convict believed to be a serial killer. The review of NYPDhomicide files was triggered by a San Jose police teletype warning law-enforcement agenciesnationwide that Perez said he had attacked other women in the early 1990s and that he had spenttime in New York City during that period.

Perez, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 1999 for raping and attempting to kill 14 yearold San Francisco girl, was linked to the three California murders during a review of cold-casehomicides in San Jose. His DNA, which was in California's statewide database, tied him to the 1989sex attack strangulation.