Payne-Phalen District 5 Planning Council

Crime Updates Jan. 2007

Police link rape suspect to other incidents (KARE 11 news)

Saint Paul Police now believe the man they've been looking for in two rapes is also responsible for two other incidents in recent months.

A 13-year-old girl was raped Monday on the city's East Side while she walked to her school bus stop. It happened about a half-mile away from where a 57-year-old woman was raped in the early morning hours of New Year's Day. Those attacks have triggered a vigorous manhunt and a crackdown on known sexual predators in the city.

The two additional incidents include a case from the Capitol Heights neighborhood where a woman was menaced by a man - and a November case where a woman was punched in the face, but managed to escape before the attack grew worse.

Friday afternoon the department will release three sketches of the suspect. Police spokesman Tom Walsh said the drawings are "strikingly similar."

The 57-year-old victim of the New Years Day rape provided the details for one of the drawings. Police say they had not released that drawing sooner because the victim was unsure how accurate it was.

They became more certain of the description when the victim of the November attack and a possible witness gave similar descriptions of the suspect.

He is described as a black male, 16- to 35-years old, five-feet eight-inches to six-feet tall, weighing less than 200 pounds.

More than 75 members of the Saint Paul police have been assigned to the case, as well as ten investigators from the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department. Fire crews are also patrolling the neighborhood where the rapes happened.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=146891

Search warrant details first of recent Payne-Phalen rapes

BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED
Pioneer Press

A 57-year-old woman who was raped and beaten in St. Paul on New Year's Day pleaded with her attacker to not hurt her, telling him she was a grandmother, according to a court document filed today.

Police executed a search warrant last week at the home of a convicted sex offender and today filed the application used to obtain the warrant.

The man is not under arrest, but police said he hasn't been eliminated as a suspect.

On Monday, a 13-year-old girl was raped as she walked to her bus stop in the city's Payne-Phalen area, about half a mile from where the 57-year-old woman was attacked. Police say they don't have evidence the cases are connected, but are investigating similarities.

The woman had gone to a local store to buy cigarettes early Jan. 1 and stopped in a well-lit parking lot behind a Salvation Army building at Payne and Lawson avenues to light a cigarette, the application for the search warrant stated.

She was about to leave when a man she didn't know approached her and asked whether she smoked crack. She told the man she didn't, the application said. He asked whether she lived in the area.

The woman told police she started to feel uncomfortable, told the man, "Happy New Year," and went to pick up a bag she had set on the ground to light her cigarette, the application said. The man grabbed her by the neck and pushed her between a large garbage container and a tall wooden fence.

The man choked and raped her, the application said. Afterward, he grabbed her by the neck, hit her in the face and head and pushed her. When she fell, the man kicked her in the face and head. She told police she thought the man was going to kill her.

"After being repeatedly kicked and pleading with the man to stop," the woman pretended to be unconscious, the application said. She waited several minutes to make sure the man was gone and then ran out to Payne Avenue and flagged down a car for help about 12:40 a.m..

The woman was bleeding heavily from the head and face, the application said. Paramedics took her to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Police went to the scene and found signs of a struggle, including large spots of blood in the snow, the application said. The only footprints in the snow were the woman's and the man's and police collected evidence from his shoes' ridge pattern.

A used condom and condom wrapper were also found, the application said. Police weren't able to lift useable fingerprints from the wrapper, the application said.

In reviewing a database of registered sex offenders in the area who generally matched a broad description the woman gave of her rapist, a county probation agent identified a man who had been convicted of raping a woman he picked up outside a bar. The man had choked that woman during the attack and lived about a block and a half from where the 57-year-old woman was raped.

When police talked to the man, he was cooperative, the application said. They took a DNA sample from him and collected other evidence from his home.

Police arrested the man's roommate, also a sex offender, after they found marijuana and methamphetamine in his pockets. As officers led him outside in handcuffs, the man broke away, ran into the street, was struck by a car and died.

Investigators have submitted evidence from both rape cases to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's laboratory. The cases are on a high-priority track, but testing can take about two weeks.

St. Paul police expect to release composite sketches this afternoon of the suspect or suspects in the rapes, spokesman Tom Walsh said. They will be posted at www.twincities.com.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/16446230.htm

St. Paul police plan release of rape suspect sketches

BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED
Pioneer Press

St. Paul police expect to release composite sketches today of the suspect or suspects in two recent rapes in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, spokesman Tom Walsh said.

Only broad descriptions of the suspects have been available so far. The sketches could be released this afternoon and will be posted at www.twincities.com.

A 13-year-old girl was raped on the way to her bus stop Monday morning and a 57-year-old woman was raped on New Year's Day. Police say they have no evidence the attacks are connected, but there are a number of similarities.

Both victims were dragged into alleys and were choked into unconsciousness. The rapes happened about half a mile apart on Payne Avenue, both occurred on Mondays, and the suspect descriptions are similar.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/16446230.htm