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June 2, 2006, 11:12AM


Man convicted in Galleria rape
Jury also told of 'one-man crime spree'; he faces up to life in prison
By PEGGY O'HARE

A man convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in a Galleria parking garage also waged a reign of terror by breaking into several southwest Houston homes, a jury was told Thursday.

Jurors also were told that Juan Reyes Solis, 23, had numerous suspicious items in his Ford Mustang when he was arrested in 2003, including two masks, two pairs of gloves, a hatchet, a hammer and a tow rope.

Solis was convicted Thursday of aggravated sexual assault for raping a hairstylist after forcing her into her car as she left her job at the Galleria. The attack was the most violent of several such incidents at the upscale shopping center in summer 2003.

The victim, who said Solis twisted her head in an apparent attempt to break her neck, later jumped from the car when he stopped at a red light.

Solis faces a sentence ranging from five years to life in prison. He is not eligible for probation because he has two burglary convictions and a criminal mischief conviction.

Prosecutor Wendy Baker said Solis, an illegal immigrant, embarked on a "one-man crime spree" that ended only when he was arrested for breaking into an automated teller machine. Police found the masks and suspicious tools in his car.

Once Solis' fingerprints were available as a result of that arrest, police linked him to several burglaries at homes near the Galleria.

At least one victim, a woman who identified Solis in a photo lineup, reported that she was alone in her home in the 5400 block of John Dreaper when he forced his way through a window, prompting her to run out the front door.

Another woman described the shock of returning to her home in the 5200 block of Piping Rock to find eight pairs of her underwear neatly lined up on her bed and her closet ransacked.

Her jewelry and a gun had been stolen. Solis' fingerprints were found in her house, Houston police investigator M.R. Bortmas said.

Solis was convicted of burglary for that incident, as well as another residential break-in in which his fingerprints also were recovered, jurors learned.

He was serving three years in prison for the burglaries when a national police database linked his DNA to evidence recovered from the hairstylist's sexual assault. Solis showed no reaction when the guilty verdict was announced Thursday.

The hairstylist, now 21, was in court with her stepmother. The woman is suing the Galleria's owners and the company that provided security there when the attack took place.

Closing arguments in the trial's punishment phase are set for this morning in state District Judge Mike Anderson's court.

peggy.ohare@chron.com