Suspect in woman’s attack arrested
Man broke down door, robbed and raped victim, APD says
Police say a homeless man asked a woman for a lighter before breaking down her door, raping her and tying her up in a random attack Wednesday afternoon at a southeast Albuquerque apartment complex.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, 22-year-old Charles Taylor took his time — spending over two hours in the woman’s apartment and leaving fingerprints on a Gatorade bottle that would lead to his Thursday morning arrest.
Taylor admitted being at the apartment complex but denied the attack as officers escorted him out of the Downtown police station Thursday afternoon.
APD spokesman Simon Drobik said the fingerprints broke the case that he called a “very horrific crime to an elderly victim in our community.”
Around 10 a.m., police say, the victim, a 59-yearold woman with multiple sclerosis, was standing outside her home at the Cinnamon Tree Apartments near Louisiana and Central, when “a man she had never met before” asked her for a lighter.
According to the complaint, the woman gave Taylor a lighter and went back inside her apartment, locking the door.
Police say Taylor pushed his way in, breaking the lock. The woman gave him $100 but that wasn’t enough. Taylor punched the woman before rummaging through her bedroom and putting on her clothes.
According to the complaint, Taylor had grabbed two duffel bags and begun filling them with her belongings, when she asked him to “just leave.”
“This seemed to make him upset,” an officer wrote in the complaint.
Police say Taylor wrapped duct tape around the victim’s mouth and bound her before raping her. Afterward, Taylor loaded his hands with jewelry and used her cellphone to listen to music.
According to the complaint, before Taylor left, he took the woman’s keys and told her he would return to untie her.
“He also said that she was lucky, because usually he beats people up worse when he does this,” an officer wrote.
The woman told police she believed Taylor would return to “kill her.”
When detectives found Taylor on Thursday morning a few miles away, police say he was wearing sweatpants and carrying a duffel bag that matched those stolen from the victim.
Taylor has a record spanning the last few years with charges of burglary, auto theft and criminal trespass, among others.
He was released April 10 after state District Judge Charles Brown denied preventative detention on charges of receiving or transferring stolen vehicles stemming from a April 4 arrest.