Victim’s Help Leads to Arrest of Suspect in Series of Rapes

A 33-year-old Santa Ana man, who was recognized on the street Halloween night by a rape victim as her attacker, is also a suspect in seven other rape cases, police said Thursday.

Jesus Solorio, who had served 30 days in Orange County Jail for a previous attempted rape, is suspected of attacking three women in Irvine--one of them on Halloween afternoon--and four other women in Santa Ana.

He was arrested after a woman saw him walking on South Main Street near the site where she had been raped in June. She noted the license of the car he got into and called police.

After a short stakeout at Solorio’s house on West Saint Andrew Place on Wednesday, Santa Ana police watched him get into the car the victim had described and drive away. They arrested him a short time later.

The alleged rape of the woman who recognized the suspect occurred about 5:30 p.m. June 5 when the victim was waiting at a bus stop in the 1000 block of South Main Street. A man, brandishing a handgun, forced her into his blue 1984 Nissan Maxima. He then drove her to an orange grove in Irvine and raped her.

In another case, a 25-year-old woman walking with her two children on South Main Street in the afternoon on Oct. 11 was approached by a man who threatened them with a handgun. He forced them into his car and again drove them to an orange grove, police said. The woman distracted the attacker and fled with her children, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bob Clark said. She was not harmed.

Seven other women have reported similar sexual assaults, Clark said. In each case, the attacker approached the women with a gun, a knife or a screwdriver, forced them into his car and drove them to an Irvine orange grove.

Irvine Police Sgt. Jim Broomfield said that in the three attacks in that city, a man picked up women at various bus stops either by force or by offering them a lift. All three women were attacked during the day and in the grove near Jeffrey Road and Barranca Parkway. Two of the Irvine attacks occurred in July. The third occurred about 1:20 p.m. on Halloween, when a man approached a 24-year-old woman at a bus stop in Santa Ana, pointed a handgun at her and demanded that she get in his car. He then drove her to the grove.

“She didn’t run because she was afraid she would get shot,” Broomfield said. At the grove, she fought him off in the car and escaped, police said. She ran through the grove as he followed her in his car, but he abandoned the chase.

Broomfield said he did not know why the suspect chose this orange grove. It’s “not even that secluded,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of traffic there from service vehicles. . . . But when you’re successful a number of times, you don’t really change.”

After the series of attacks, Irvine police executed some stakeouts and patrolled the grove more frequently, he said. Tuesday’s arrest has brought a bit of relief for Irvine police.

“Maybe after this arrest other women will come forth,” Broomfield said. “I’m sure there are other victims out there. This predator needs to go to, or back to, prison.”

Clark agreed, “This guy is very dangerous. We’re elated about catching him.”