An Illegal immigrant from Mexico is being held in rape attacks

Deanna Boyd:

An illegal immigrant in federal custody since his arrest early this month on traffic warrants was arrested Thursday in connection with a string of rapes and other sexual attacks dating back to December 2004, police said.

His hands and legs shackled, Jose Carrillo, 30, was transported from federal custody Thursday afternoon and arrested by Fort Worth police on warrants in two of the Fort Worth rapes.

Police say DNA evidence linked Carrillo to the two attacks, in addition to a rape in Arlington. When asked by reporters if he committed the offenses, Carrillo said no, adding that he has a wife and a baby on the way.

“This is not fair what you guys are doing. This is not fair,” Carrillo said, shielding his face from the cameras with his green shirt as he was led down a police hallway to begin being booked into jail, with bail set at $300,000. “These guys have killed my life.”

Carrillo, who police say has numerous aliases, surfaced as a suspect in the case after an apartment manager told police that the man had sexually assaulted one of her tenants, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

He was arrested on outstanding traffic warrants March 10 as he drove away from his place of employment. A Mexican national, Carrillo was then placed into federal custody on an immigration hold.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, police obtained a warrant for a DNA sample from Carrillo. On Wednesday, Detectives C.B. Smith and S.L. Schloeman were notified that his DNA matched biological evidence recovered from the June 17 rape of a woman at the Meridian apartments on Marine Creek and the Jan. 24 rape of a woman in the 1000 block of N.W. 28th Street.

In addition, police said, Carrillo’s DNA matched evidence from the Dec. 19 rape of a woman at the Windcastle Apartments in southeast Arlington.

During a Thursday afternoon news conference, Sgt. Don Hanlon, supervisor of the sex-crimes unit, said Carrillo is also a suspect in about a dozen other offenses, including indecent exposures and robberies that investigators believe might have been unsuccessful sexual assault attempts.

Hanlon said investigators have learned that Carrillo lived in the Marine Creek area when the first series of attacks happened there between December 2004 and October 2005.

In those attacks, police say a masked man armed with a kitchen knife attacked women in their homes or as they were arriving or leaving.

Later, Hanlon said, Carrillo moved to north Fort Worth, where two attacks were reported between November and January. Police say a man, usually wearing a ski mask, confronted his victims as they walked down the road or were getting into their cars. He displayed a rope or placed one around the victim’s neck.

“There was enough variance in the description that we weren’t sure that it was the same person so we started analyzing evidence obtained from the crime scenes,” Hanlon said. “... We were eventually able to relate these two series of offenses together.”

Hanlon said investigators searching Carrillo’s home found items that may be related to the attacks, including clothing that matches the description of what the attacker wore in some of the offenses.

“We recovered articles that are similar in nature to what the victims described was used to restrain them around their neck,” Hanlon added.

Because of time gaps in the attacks and the attacker’s pattern, Hanlon said, investigators believe other sexual assaults may not have been reported to police. He urged any other victims to come forward.

“He didn’t know boundaries, obviously, because he was in two different cities in Tarrant County, so we’re concerned that there are other offenses that haven’t been reported to us and we want to prosecute this person for all the crimes he’s committed, not just the three that we have him on now,” Hanlon said.

Police Arrest Serial Rape Suspect