The 36-year-old man accused of holding a 40-year-old deaf and
mute woman captive and raping her during an August weekend near San
Juan Bautista has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has a
preliminary hearing set for later this month.
The 36-year-old man accused of holding a 40-year-old deaf and mute woman captive and raping her during an August weekend near San Juan Bautista has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has a preliminary hearing set for later this month.
Roberto Cavillo, an illegal immigrant who had lived on Chittenden Road in San Juan Bautista, is scheduled to be in court at 2 p.m. on Sept. 22 in courtroom 101 for the preliminary setting hearing. Retired Judge Thomas Breen is slated to preside over the hearing.
On Thursday, Cavillo pleaded not guilty to the charges and on Aug. 24, Judge Steven Sanders increased his bail from $150,000 to $300,000. However, Cavillo has a hold placed on him by federal immigration authorities keeping him at the San Benito County Jail until the proceedings are completed.
According to court documents, Cavillo is charged on suspicion of six counts of rape by force, one count of false imprisonment, three counts of rape in concert with force or violence, three counts of oral copulation by force, one count of assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm and one count of possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. All of the charges are felonies, except for the paraphernalia.
According to the sheriff’s office report, the following occurred over the weekend of Aug. 15:
Cavillo met with the victim and invited her to a party at his residence on Chittenden Road, near Aromas. Authorities said the two had gone out a couple of times in the past but that there was no indication they had been involved romantically.
Prior to leaving Watsonville, the victim grabbed a bag of personal items to take along, according to authorities. When the two arrived she was quickly bound and gagged and repeatedly raped over the course of the weekend, said Lt. Roy Iler with the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 12:45 a.m. on Aug. 18, the victim escaped through a window and started walking on Chittenden Road toward Watsonville. A driver stopped after noticing she had looked “distraught and disheveled,” and proceeded to bring her to the Watsonville Police Department. Police detectives there determined, through the help of a sign language translator, that the crime had occurred in San Benito County.
The victim was transported to a Bay Area hospital for treatment and forensic analysis, which authorities allege confirmed she had been sexually assaulted and that it had been done using a knife.
Authorities also learned the identity of the suspect and executed a search warrant of his residence, where authorities found the personal items she had brought to the house.
