DNA link provides rape arrest

ALBUQUERQUE -- DNA tests have linked a sex offender from Washington to an alleged sexual assault here Albuquerque.

Now Rudy San Martin, 43, is charged with rape and kidnapping. Police arrested him Tuesday on a warrant issued Dec. 21.

Police identified San Martin as one of three possible suspects, all men who attended a gathering at an Albuquerque apartment on Nov. 11. During the party, he raped a woman who got drunk after watching fights on television, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

The woman told investigators she woke up with a man on top of her.

The Albuquerque Police Department crime lab was able to match DNA samples taken from the woman with the DNA of a convicted sex offender in Washington.

That sex offender was identified as San Martin, and the crime lab notified detectives right away.

“What we can gather is that he's got two residences,” APD Officer Trish Hoffman said. “He's here part-time, goes there part time; that's why at first we couldn't find him.

“What we believe is he's going back and forth between states."

Detectives have now secured another warrant to collect DNA directly from San Martin.

That DNA will be compared to DNA collected from the alleged victim here in Albuquerque and the DNA on file in Washington.

In the meantime San Martin remains in jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

Police said the two other possible suspects voluntarily provided DNA samples during the time while San Martin could not be found.