Tacoma police have arrested a man they’ve been looking for since April 2009 after a DNA hit linked him to a sexual attack nine years earlier.
Pierce County prosecutors charged Luis R. Garcia in 2009 with first-degree rape and second-degree assault after DNA evidence connected him to the attack Aug. 24, 2000.
An arrest warrant was issued at the time, and Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers offered a reward for any information that would help find him.
Officers arrested Garcia, 27, late Saturday during a traffic stop on the East Side. He told officers he had been living in California for the past two years, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
He was arraigned on the rape and assault charges Monday and ordered held in the Pierce County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Charging documents gave this account of the 2000 attack:
The victim was with a friend when their car broke down. She walked to a bus stop and accepted a ride from two men, who drove her to an apartment complex and parked.
When the woman objected, the men pulled her from the car and into an apartment. They punched her and ripped off her clothes. One attacker put on a condom and raped the woman.
The victim was forced into a bathroom and told to wash herself, but she refused.
When the men left, the woman, who was still nude, fled and got help at another apartment. She was taken to a hospital, where doctors found she had several facial fractures.
Police found a used condom in the apartment’s bathroom, and in 2006 the Washington State Patrol crime lab used it to develop a DNA profile. The profile was run through state and national databases of known offenders but found no matches.
The DNA profile was run through the same databases in May 2008, and it matched Garcia’s.
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268 stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.