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Man faces charges in sexual assault
Police arrest suspect in attack, robbery of Chesterfield woman
BY MARK BOWES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, April 8, 2006


A 27-year-old man was arrested yesterday and charged with sexually assaulting, beating and robbing a Chesterfield County woman in her home early Monday.

Hector H. Hernandez, of the 1900 block of Powell Road in South Richmond, was arrested without incident shortly before 9 a.m., Chesterfield police said.

He was charged with attempted rape, breaking and entering, malicious wounding, grand larceny and abduction. He was being held without bond in the Chesterfield Jail pending a hearing Monday.

The 53-year-old woman was attacked in her bedroom about 5 a.m. Monday after a man broke a sliding glass door to her apartment in the 3500 block of Meadowdale Boulevard.

The woman was beaten throughout the attack and sexually assaulted, police said. Afterward, the intruder stole the woman's 1998 Chevrolet Malibu.

The car was found abandoned a day later in the 1800 block of Fernbrook Drive. A citizen spotted the vehicle and called police. Fernbrook Drive is within an eighth of a mile of the Powell Road residence where Hernandez lived, said Chesterfield police Lt. Russ LesCault.

The victim, who was to be released from the hospital yesterday, suffered multiple broken bones in her face, LesCault said.

Depending on the results of laboratory tests investigators might seek additional sex charges against Hernandez, LesCault said.

Citizen tips and "good hard investigation work" helped police develop Hernandez as a suspect, he said.

LesCault said Hernandez, who is either from Mexico or Guatemala, has no immigration papers and was in the United States illegally. Police haven't yet determined how long he's lived here. Police have contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation.


Contact staff writer Mark Bowes at mbowes@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6450.