BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A man who authorities say raped a 13-year-old Delano girl in 2014 allegedly pointed a gun at her head and told her not to scream as he bound her with wire and covered her eyes with a bandana.
He threatened to kill her.
After sexually assaulting her, Rodrigo Munoz Perez made another threat, newly-released court documents say.
“Perez told her if she said anything about the incident, he would kill her family because he knew where she lived,” a Delano police investigator wrote in the documents.
Police Chief Tyson Davis this week announced Perez had been charged with her rape.
On Feb. 8, DNA evidence left at the scene and that had been uploaded into a national database returned a hit for a sample identified as belonging to Perez, according to the documents.
Perez was arrested last year in Contra Costa County on attempted rape and other charges in a separate case. His DNA was uploaded to the database, leading to the positive hit in the Delano case.
Perez, 56, is charged with eight felonies in Kern County. It’s expected the other case will be resolved before he stands trial in Kern.
On Aug. 1, 2014, the teen was walking to school down 8th Avenue between High and Main streets when a man grabbed her from behind and pulled her into an alley, court filings say. He forced her to a spot between two buildings, covered her mouth, bound her hands and positioned a piece of cardboard to conceal their location.
He then sexually assaulted her. Before leaving, he told her to count to 100 before she got up, the documents say.
The teen did as she was told then sought help from a woman she found nearby.
Police located the crime scene at the west end of a narrow walkway between an apartment complex and a furniture business, the documents say. They seized a piece of cardboard, wire, a blue bandana, gloves and a couple quarters.
Surveillance video taken from a nearby business showed a man wearing sunglasses, plaid red shirt, black shorts, black shoes and a black backpack force the girl into the alley, according to the filings. The man walks back out a few minutes later and heads south, and the girl leaves shortly afterward.
The girl told police she didn’t get a clear look at the man but said he appeared to be Hispanic with dark brown skin and black wavy hair, the filings say. He had a tattoo on a forearm but she couldn’t recall of what.
“Jane Doe said she never tried to run because she was in shock and scared about what was going on,” an investigator wrote. “Jane Doe stated that she believes if she would have run he would have shot her with the gun.”
