Ten days after a St. Paul neighborhood was left reeling following a home invasion and sexual assault of one of their neighbors, a suspect was taken into custody and has now been charged.
Authorities said that following his arrest, Deonte Marquon Thomas, 34, of Maplewood admitted to picking the home at random on the 300 block of Snelling Avenue South, where he used a rock or brick to break in through the door.
The charges describe that police were called to the home about 4:20 a.m. on April 15 after a woman called 911 and said she was raped with a gun held to her head by an unknown man. Police arrived and found broken glass just inside the partially open door.
The visibly upset woman was able to describe to police that the suspect had a large vertical scar from his sternum to his belt line and smelled strongly of body odor and alcohol.
The victim said she was awakened by pounding at the side door of her residence and saw a man break the glass and reach inside to unlock the door.
Thomas demanded money from the victim and then forced her to engage in sex acts and strangled her into unconsciousness at one point.
A neighborhood search ensued for the suspect, including the use of a police K9 and a drone. The suspect was not located at the time.
DNA evidence was able to be obtained from the victim during a sexual assault exam. Video evidence was also obtained from outside the home that captured a partial license plate of a truck parked in the alley. The plate was also captured by a nearby license plate reader just two minutes after the 911 call and was recorded traveling away from the area of the victim’s home. Law enforcement was able to match the plate to a truck registered to Thomas.
Other surveillance images captured a male on the victim’s property near the time of the crime. The victim identified the man in the image as her assailant with 100% certainty, the complaint said.
Police also spoke to Thomas’s girlfriend, who identified him in the surveillance image and confirmed that he had a large scar on his stomach. The girlfriend also told police that she had found a handgun in Thomas’s vehicle and took it because he was not supposed to have guns. However, she gave the gun back to Thomas after telling him she took it.
St. Paul police said in a press conference following Thomas’s arrest that search warrants had been executed at residences in Stillwater and Maplewood to gather evidence. The complaint states that a gun was found in Thomas’s vehicle, and two more guns were found in his girlfriend’s vehicle and her home where Thomas was known to stay. DNA evidence from the firearms has been submitted for testing, and the results are pending.
Thomas told police that he “f****d up” and that he was “frustrated” and “angry” over life circumstances and “violated someone’s personal space.”
Thomas has been charged in Ramsey County District Court with felony counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree burglary, and one gross misdemeanor count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm or ammunition.
Thomas has prior felony convictions for theft and receiving stolen property, as well as misdemeanor domestic abuse, and a juvenile conviction for gross misdemeanor dangerous weapons, according to the complaint.
The criminal complaint describes Thomas as “an extremely high risk to public safety.”
Thomas made his first court appearance on Friday and was denied a public defender. He is being held on $250,000 bail, and his next hearing is scheduled for May 1.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
