Charges: Illegal immigrant, angry at former landlady, raped her in her St. Paul home
Charges: Illegal immigrant, angry at former landlady, raped her in her St. Paul home
Deanna Weniger, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Fri, July 23, 2021, 6:08 PM·2 min read
Jul. 23—A Minneapolis man was charged Thursday with brutally raping his former St. Paul landlady because he was angry that she refused to let his girlfriend move in with him.
Rolando Lopez-Meneses, 23, was charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of first-degree burglary. He is believed to be in the country illegally, police said. He is being held at the Ramsey County jail.
According to the criminal complaint, Lopez-Meneses rented a room in the woman's house on the 1600 block of Margaret Street in St. Paul's Battle Creek Neighborhood. He had lived there about eight months.
The woman told police that in the weeks prior to the alleged assault, Lopez-Meneses had moved out after she refused to let him move his girlfriend into his room, according to the criminal complaint. He had recently returned, asking for his room back, but the woman turned him away because she had already rented it out to someone else.
The woman believed he may have used a house key that he failed to return to gain access to her home, according to the complaint.
St. Paul police responded to a burglary report at the home about 4 a.m. July 17. When they arrived, the woman was afraid and locked herself in her room until officers cleared the scene. They could hear her sobbing through the door, the complaint states.
When they entered the bedroom, they found her wrapped in a blanket, visibly upset, bruised and bleeding. As she spoke to officers through the help of an interpreter, she fainted and fell to the floor.
She was taken to the hospital where police continued to question her. She told them she had been asleep in her bed when she awoke to Lopez-Meneses straddling her with his hands over her mouth and plugging her nose so she was unable to breathe, the complaint states.
She begged for him to leave, but he ignored her and began to brutally rape and beat her. When she screamed, he put his hands back over her mouth and nose, the complaint states.
A tenant living at the house heard the commotion and came out of his room, scaring Lopez-Meneses away, according to the complaint.
Police located him July 21 in Eagan and arrested him. He admitted to using the key he'd kept from the time he was renting, but told the police the sex was consensual. Officers also found the woman's cell phone in his possession.
Lopez-Meneses had an identification card from Mexico and is believed to be in the United States illegally, police said.
He will appear in Ramsey County court for a hearing Wednesday.
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