Rape suspect in U.S. illegally


By Jill King Greenwood
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 4, 2005


A Honduran man accused of raping a Westwood woman after she woke up and found him lying in bed beside her is suspected of stalking about 20 other neighborhood women, police said Thursday.
Henry Espernoza, 32, who has been living in the country illegally for two years, spied on the women, looked for those who lived alone and prowled mostly after dark, said Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus.

The crime spree began as early as Oct. 10 and lasted two weeks, he said.

Espernoza, of Poplar Street, raped the 56-year-old woman in her bedroom Oct. 15 after a violent struggle in her Chessland Street home, Kraus said. The woman called police.

About 15 minutes earlier, Espernoza broke into a 35-year-old woman's Poplar Street residence before she returned home to find him standing in her bedroom, Kraus said. Espernoza ran, taking with him a pair of her underwear, Kraus said.

Late in the evening of Oct. 24, police said, Espernoza was climbing through the bedroom window of another Poplar Street home when the woman living there confronted him, Kraus said. The intruder ran, and the woman called police. Officers patrolling the area saw Espernoza minutes later trying to break into the bedroom window of another Poplar Street home and arrested him, the lieutenant said.

Espernoza, who at the time of his arrest was carrying the underwear stolen on Oct. 15, was charged with rape, burglary and prowling offenses. Kraus said Espernoza usually entered the homes through bedroom windows, some of them unlocked.

Investigators said they believe Espernoza struck some homes more than once and have evidence that he stalked about 20 other women, said Kraus, who declined to elaborate.

"He wasn't going to stop this anytime soon unless we caught him,'' Kraus said. "We think there are more women out there who might not even realize their homes were broken into or their underwear was stolen.''

Espernoza was being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bail last night, and agents with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now investigating.

Espernoza does not have relatives in Pittsburgh, and police yesterday were still trying to determine why he was in the city and where he worked, Kraus said.

A call to the immigration agency was not returned