DNA 'hit' leads to charges in 2001 Soquel rape

By Cathy Smith

sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ — A young man accused of raping a Capitola woman in April appeared in court Wednesday to begin defending a new allegation — that he also raped a 35-year-old woman in Soquel nearly four years ago.

Joseph Juan Carvalho Beltran, 21, pleaded innocent to the new charges. They were filed this week after detectives got a DNA match on unspecified evidence from the Dec. 12, 2001, rape.

Detectives say the DNA match pointed to Beltran, whose genetic information was in the criminal justice system not from the Capitola rape, but from when he served time in prison for a 2002 burglary, sheriff's Sgt. Robin Mitchell said.

Beltran, of Capitola, faces a potential life sentence in connection with both rapes.

The state Department of Justice is getting an increasing number of DNA matches daily, Mitchell said, due in part to a 2004 state proposition that mandated collection of DNA samples from all those convicted of felonies in California. The state lab is getting about two such "hits" daily, she said, and "the database has grown exponentially."

Mitchell, who heads the Sexual Assault Unit of the Sheriff's Office, said she got the news on the Soquel case from a lab in Richmond in August and recently confirmed it by getting a warrant and obtaining a blood sample of Beltran in County Jail, which was sent back to the lab.

"It's gratifying," she said. "It's what this job is all about."

The 2001 rape occurred as the victim was painting an apartment in preparation for rental, and a man came to the door asking about the apartment, sheriff's deputies reported then. He returned about 15 minutes later, deputies reported, and broke in through an unlocked window. Armed with a knife, he also stole money from the woman, deputies said.

At the time, however, detectives described the suspect as being in his mid-20s.

Mitchell said the victim was doing well and was relieved to hear the news.

"It was very violent; so was the Capitola case," Mitchell said.

The Capitola rape occurred April 9 at a Monterey Avenue apartment. Beltran is accused of breaking into a developmentally disabled woman's apartment, armed with a knife, and raping, sexually assaulting and stealing property from her.

Four years ago, detectives were calling that rape the work of a possible serial rapist after a teen was sexually assaulted by a man with a knife the following night, while working alone in a 41st Avenue yogurt shop. But a San Jose man, Hector Sanchez, confessed and was convicted of that crime in 2003.

Mitchell said so-called "stranger rapes" are rare. She said she knows of only one other violent, unsolved recent rape with DNA evidence in the county's unincorporated areas. That is the McGregor Drive area rape of a jogger in the early morning of July 31, 2004. Beltran's DNA did not match that case, she said.

Beltran's attorney, Charlie Stevens, declined comment on the case Wednesday, as did prosecutor Jeff Rosell. Some of the reticence is because Beltran was only 17 at the time of the 2001 crime. But he was charged as an adult and Judge Robert Atack set a preliminary hearing date of Dec. 19. Prosecutors will try to join the cases.

In the Capitola case, Beltran was arrested April 19, after a high-speed chase from Watsonville to Santa Cruz. The chase ended with a California Highway Patrol officer firing shots at a truck Beltran was a passenger in and which his friend was driving. Beltran does not face charges in that case, but his friend, Manuel PeÃ3/8a, 20, was convicted Monday of auto theft and evading. PeÃ3/8a also was charged with four counts of assault for allegedly ramming two CHP cars, but jurors failed to reach consensus on those charges and the District Attorney's Office has vowed to retry him.

Mitchell asks anyone with information to call 454-2311.