Cambria man charged with kidnapping and rape for alleged assault on female hiker
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office filed kidnapping and rape charges Wednesday against a Cambria man arrested on suspicion of dragging a female hiker off of Santa Rosa Creek Trail and sexually assaulting her.
The woman, who is not being identified, was hiking on the Santa Rosa Creek trail south of Windsor Boulevard around noon June 27 when she was “dragged off the trail by a male suspect who was unknown to her,” San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office officials said in a news release.
On Wednesday, county prosecutors filed seven charges against Jesus Barajas Valdovinos, who remains in San Luis Obispo County Jail with bail set at $1 million.
Barajas Valdovinos, 31, faces two counts of forcible rape, one count of kidnapping and four counts of forced oral copulation.
Some of the charges carry sentencing enhancements for aggravating factors such as physically removing the woman from the trail and “kidnapping for sex purposes.”
Court records showed that Barajas Valdovinos had a court arraignment scheduled for Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if he entered a plea Wednesday.
According to a Friday news release, Barajas Valdovinos held the woman against her will and “sexually assaulted the victim over the next several hours before leaving her and fleeing the area.”
The woman notified the Sheriff’s Office of the assault the next morning, the release said, and detectives collected DNA evidence that was processed over the following days using an ANDE Rapid DNA instrument to development a DNA profile of the suspect.
It was the first time the department has used the instrument in a criminal investigation, the agency said.
Detectives identified the suspect as Barajas Valdovinos, who was also positively identified by the victim.
The Sheriff’s Office then “saturated the Cambria area with both marked and unmarked patrol units while detectives continued their investigation and attempted to locate Barajas Valdovinos,” according to the release.
Detectives arrested Barajas Valdovinos in the 4000 block of Burton Drive on Friday.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 4:53 PM.
