Two men agree to plead guilty to raping homeless men in Smokies

Travis Dorman | Knoxville

Two men have agreed to plead guilty to federal charges they took homeless men from Knoxville to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they raped them.

Dusty William Oliver, 40, and Richard Graham, 49, each have struck a deal to plead guilty to two charges of aiding and abetting an aggravated sexual assault in the country's most visited national park, court records show.

The charges stem from two nearly identical attacks that took place three years apart, according to plea agreements filed by prosecutors in U.S. District Court.

'This is going to happen'

On June 13, 2012, a man called 911 to report he had been raped in the park. He said he had been walking down Chapman Highway in South Knoxville when a vehicle pulled up beside him. The two men inside asked him if he wanted a ride to Bristol, Tennessee, to watch a NASCAR race. The victim, who said he had been drinking heavily, agreed.

The victim soon realized, however, that they were not heading toward Bristol. Instead, the vehicle pulled into a parking lot in the Smokies, and one of the men suggested they take a hike along the Appalachian Trail.

The victim recalled feeling uncomfortable as he walked along the trail, the smaller of the two men leading the way, the larger man following closely behind.

"It was becoming dark," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman wrote in the plea agreements. "He was unfamiliar with his surroundings and every time he tripped or stumbled, the larger defendant grabbed him and pulled him up. Each time the larger defendant became more and more aggressive."

When the trio came upon a large rock, the men "sandwiched" the victim between them and sexually assaulted him simultaneously, the documents state.

"This is going to happen," the victim recalled one of the men saying when he protested. He added that he feared his attackers would kill him and leave his body in the woods.

Afterwards, the men drove the victim to a gas station and dropped him off. He went to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where a rape kit was taken. The evidence was sent to the FBI, which confirmed the presence of DNA from an unknown man.

With no other leads, the investigation stalled for more than three years.

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Gas station stops lead to arrests

On Nov. 3, 2015, another homeless man called 911 and reported he had just been raped in the park.

He gave a similar account. Two men in a vehicle picked him up as he walked along Chapman Highway. They went for a hike in the Smokies. On the way down from Lookout Tower, the victim said the two men "sandwiched" him between them and assaulted him as he told them to stop, according to the plea agreements. The men then dropped him off in Knoxville, and he walked to the hospital, where a rape kit was taken.

This time, the victim shared with investigators cellphone photos of one of his attackers, and he described the other man's tattoos. He said the men stopped at two gas stations on the way to the Smokies, which prompted police to retrieve surveillance footage showing the suspects.

The Blount County Sheriff's Office posted photos from the footage on social media, and quickly identified the pair as Oliver and Graham. Investigators brought them in for questioning on July 17, 2018.

Graham at first denied having sex with the second victim, then changed his story and said he went along with the assault because Oliver wanted it to happen, according to the agreements.

The men provided swabs for analysis, and tests matched Graham's DNA to evidence in both cases, the documents state.

A grand jury indicted Oliver and Graham in September, and they agreed to plead guilty last month. Sentencing hearings have not yet been set.