Omaha Man Pleads Guilty in Iowa Rape Case - KHGI-TV/KWNB-TV/KHGI-CD-Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings

Authorities are crediting a federal DNA database for nabbing a Nebraska sex offender in a 10-year-old Iowa sexual assault case.

Mark Sands, 51, a registered sex offender from Omaha, pleaded guilty to third-degree kidnapping and third-degree sexual assault before his trial in Pottawattamie County was set to begin Tuesday. He had been charged with first- and second-degree kidnapping, burglary, sexual abuse and three assault charges for a 2001 home invasion in which a Council Bluffs mother was raped and beaten and her 16-year-old disabled daughter tied up.

Sands was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.

Sands was arrested last year after police said the national DNA database identified him as the man who raped the woman in October 2001.