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WEST POINT — Davis County sheriff's deputies have reopened a nearly 8-year-old cold case, arresting a man who they say targeted a woman in a Walmart parking lot, followed her home and then sexually assaulted her.
In August of 2016, police collected DNA evidence from a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted in her West Point home. They were unable to identify a suspect, and the evidence was submitted to a state crime lab during "a period of statewide backlog in processing," according to charging documents. The assigned officer later left the department and the case went cold.
The woman told police that around midnight, she had driven her husband's car to the parking lot of a Layton Walmart to try and repair her own vehicle, which had broken down there earlier. She and her family were staying in a hotel because of an incident at their house that left it without power.
Police say a man approached her, claiming he was a mechanic, and offered to help her in exchange for sex, methamphetamine and cash.
The woman told police she refused, and quickly left in her husband's car, driving to her vacant house to pick up a package for her daughter. At the house, the woman said she went into the backyard to turn on her sprinkler system, which was powered by a generator, when she saw that the back door was open, the charges state.
When she stepped inside and called to see if anyone was there, the man from the parking lot appeared. He "forced her through the residence," and "they careened off several pieces of furniture," as the man punched her in the mouth and raped her, according to the charges.
In January, detectives reviewing old cases found a potential match for the DNA in the system identifying Layton resident Jose A. Mendiola-Ramirez, 49.
Police interviewed the man, who allegedly said he met the woman in the parking lot after becoming intoxicated at a nearby bar. Mendiola-Ramirez told police the woman invited him to her home, where they had consensual sex, the charges say.
Mendiola-Ramirez, who was on probation from a previous drug possession sentence, was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, rape, object rape and two counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies. He is also charged with three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
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Collin Leonard
