The San Mateo man suspected of sexually assaulting two girls in San Mateo County in May has been linked through DNA samples to the brutal rape of a 7-year-old girl in San Jose last year, San Jose police reported yesterday.
Marino Antonio Hernandez, the 43-year-old suspect already being held without bail in San Mateo County Jail, was arrested May 29 after a San Mateo police officer spotted his blue pick-up truck in San Mateo. He is being held on suspicion of kidnapping, two counts of child molestation and one count of attempted child molestation.
Although police believe he does not have any previous sex crime history, they will seek multiple life sentences as there are several counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 14.
San Mateo and Redwood City police believe he is responsible for kidnapping and molesting a 7-year-old girl in Redwood City May 7 and an 8-year-old in San Mateo May 24. In both cases the girls were walking to school, and the suspect picked up the girls in a blue truck.
The San Jose case was similar in that the girl was going to school, but it took a different course from there. In that instance, the suspect was on a bicycle when he approached the girl around 8 a.m. on April 26, 2001, and lured the her into a creek bed where he sexually assaulted her at knifepoint, according to a San Jose police report. The suspect then fled on bike.
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Later that morning the girl reported the incident to school officials at Gardner Academy who contacted police. The child's injuries from the rape were so severe she had to undergo surgery. Late last year the California Department of Justice informed San Jose police that DNA testing proved that the suspect was involved with three other sexual assaults involving young girls, two of which occurred in San Mateo County. The other was in Santa Ana.
One rape occurred in Redwood City in March 2000 and the other was in East Palo Alto in October of that year. In the Redwood City assault, the suspect asked a 7-year-old to help him fix his bike before he grabbed and assaulted her.
San Mateo County Sheriff's Office Lt. Mike Lopez said the county was waiting for DNA results to come back from the county crime lab to confirm if Hernandez is the same suspect. He said that the results would be returned today or tomorrow.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said investigators are reviewing other unsolved child molestation crimes in the area, as is customary in cases that involve sexual predators. He did not know how many cases were being reviewed in light of having a suspect in custody.
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