A convicted burglar living in Gilroy could have been the man who
raped a 12-year-old behind a health clinic in June.
A convicted burglar living in Gilroy could have been the man who raped a 12-year-old behind a health clinic in June.
DNA from a swab taken after the rape matched that of a local convicted felon who broke into Goldsmith Seeds and stole property at least six years ago. Based on this evidence, police sent the five-month-old case to the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney about three weeks ago. However, the Hispanic male – in his late 20s or early 30s – has not been arrested and no court date has been set.
“It’s not a very strong case at this point,” said Detective Mitch Madruga of Gilroy police’s sex crimes unit.
The case dates back to June 9, when a heavyset man dressed in a gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and sunglasses approached the girl at 7:45 p.m. The man made small talk with the girl then coerced her to go behind Pinnacle Health Care, near the intersection of Wren Avenue and First Street. The man – who the victim said was unshaven, had acne and smelled of marijuana – raped the girl. When a car horn distracted the man, she escaped, fled to a friend’s house and called police.
Besides DNA – taken from saliva the suspect left on the girl’s neck or cheek – police have no evidence linking the suspect to the incident, said Michael Beebe, a fellow sex-crimes detective. When called about the positive DNA match, the suspect denied raping the girl, he said. Police would not give the suspect’s name or address and would not provide a description.
Police are waiting for the district attorney to decide whether to prosecute the suspect. Supervising Deputy District Attorney Frank Carrubba, who might handle the case, was unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Police do not believe that this suspect was responsible for any of the other four rapes reported this spring – including the daytime sexual assault of a 16-year-old on the levee behind Gilroy High School – despite their proximity in time.
“The descriptions are different, (the methods) are completely different,” Madruga said. “Being that they don’t appear to be the same person, I just think it was a random coincidence.”
DNA has not provided an edge on the levee rape yet because fluid samples recovered after the crime were not sufficient to extract DNA. Instead, the crime lab must rely on a different test – the Y-chromosome test – which is not compatible with the convicted-felon database and requires police to extract new samples from suspects. So far, voluntary samples from area sex offenders and suspects did not match the sample from the levee rape, Madruga said.
Nonetheless, if this case proceeds, it could be good news for Gilroy, said Lisa DeSilva, director of development for Community Solutions – a Morgan-Hill nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual assault and educates people on violence prevention.
“Any time they can close an open sex assault case is extremely positive on many levels,” she said. First, “the person responsible for the heinous crime needs to answer for it.” Second, “if they’re convicted and sentenced, the community is that much safer for having them off the streets because sex offenders tend to be repeat offenders.”
In addition, a successful prosecution can have ripple effects on those who have survived sexual assault, DeSilva said. After all, only one of 10 rapes is reported, Community Solution’s sexual assault programmer Perla Flores said after the June rape.
“Each time that there’s an arrest and a conviction, that can very well be encouraging to survivors about coming forward and reporting what happened to them,” DeSilva said.
