San Diego

A Superior Court jury convicted a Pacific Beach man Thursday of all charges in a rape trial in which DNA fingerprinting was admitted as evidence.

Barrett Littleton, 45, was found guilty of twice raping a Pacific Beach woman in her home, and of forcible oral copulation and burglary Sept. 14, 1988.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter said Littleton could be sentenced to 48 years in state prison, which would include extra time for rape and sodomy convictions in the 1970s.

The jury deliberated about a day and a half before reaching its verdicts Thursday afternoon.

Jury foreman Peter Morrison said the DNA fingerprinting evidence, which was approved for use in the trial by Judge William Mudd, was helpful.

“We believed the other evidence was strong enough, but the DNA evidence was slight corroboration,” Morrison said.

Over several weeks in the past few months, attorneys presented evidence to Mudd about the use of the technique, which prosecutors said showed Littleton to be the rapist through analysis of fluid. The samples, which were taken from the victim, then 25, matched Littleton’s blood type.

The Littleton trial was one of the first cases locally in which the new technique has been admitted into evidence.

Sentencing was set for April 26.

Littleton, who has been in jail since his arrest in September, 1988, remains in custody without bail.