An illegal immigrant pleaded guilty to charges related to a number of Peeping Tom and sexual assaults in Pacific Beach and will be sentenced to more than five years in state prison, a prosecutor said today.
Eduardo Castillo Herrarte, 33, was arrested in February, a week after authorities released a composite rendering of the perpetrator in a series of at least 10 crimes in the beach area.
He pleaded guilty yesterday to one count each of residential burglary and assault with intent to commit rape, and two counts of peeping.
Herrarte faces a stipulated sentence of five years and four months at a hearing Jan. 14.
A resident who had reported seeing a peeper in Pacific Beach in 2005 came forward again Feb. 16 with a photograph of the man, believing he resembled the new suspect sketch she'd seen on the news, police said.
The woman said she'd seen the same stranger in the area about two months before coming forward, police said.
Detectives said Herrarte had been interrogated two years earlier but was released for lack of evidence.
Police then got in touch with immigration officials, who assisted by detaining Herrarte -- who has been deported at least twice -- and taking a photograph of him for identification in the sex-crimes cases, police said.
Following his arrest Feb. 22, the Guatemala native, a landscaper who has worked in Pacific Beach for years, made statements that incriminated him in the crimes, police said.
Eight of the offenses in the 10-month series involved peeping through residential windows. In the other two cases, the perpetrator entered homes and "had physical contact" with the victims, police saidhttp://www.fox6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f8a21143-f58c-4cf4-bb79-876326354f9a&rss=tick
2007-11-10
07:22:06
·
11 answers
·
asked by
Anonymous