Accused man pleads not guilty in sex assault
Judge sets $50,000 cash bail for El Llano resident
Jason I. Cordova was arrested on charges related to the rape and battery of an elderly woman in his El Llano neighborhood.
Jason I. Cordova, a 31-year-old El Llano man accused of sexually assaulting and battering an elderly woman in his neighborhood, pleaded not guilty to the crimes Tuesday in Tierra Amarilla.
Cordova was arrested on charges including first-degree criminal sexual penetration after the May 4 incident that rattled the small community, according to reports from the time. But on Tuesday, he was arraigned instead on a charge of criminal sexual contact, as well as aggravated burglary, aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm and tampering with evidence.
District Judge Jennifer Attrep, citing the “gruesome facts” of the attack on the woman, granted a request from Assistant District Attorney Anastasia Martin that Cordova’s bail be set at $50,000 cash only, despite an argument from a public defender that Cordova couldn’t afford a bond that high and should be set free on a $10,000 cash or surety bond.
Cordova is accused of knocking on the door of a 76-year-old woman who lives on his street and requesting a beverage on the evening of May 4. When the woman refused to give him one, previous reports in The New Mexican say, he allegedly forced his way into her home and assaulted her so brutally that she was hospitalized for several days.
Martin said Tuesday that before leaving the woman’s home, Cordova reportedly told her, “You don’t know me,” and punched her in the face, breaking her nose and eye socket.
Martin told Attrep that the woman had been notified of Tuesday’s hearing, but she chose not to attend.
Cordova does not have a felony record but has been convicted of two misdemeanors in the past, including domestic violence and disorderly conduct, Martin said.
The computerized court record for the case against Cordova lists the numbers of several juvenile criminal cases “for background,” including a 1998 case charging “cruelty to animals and negligent use of a deadly weapon” and a 1999 case involving “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.”
Several members of Cordova’s family — including his mother and sister-inlaw — did attend the hearing, and told a reporter that Cordova, a father of two, didn’t commit the crime.
Cordova’s mother, Adriana Cordova, said the Rio Arriba County Sheriff ’s Office gave her son a “courtesy ride” home from the Ohkay Casino the night of the alleged assault and didn’t find him troublesome. She also disputed information provided by the sheriff ’s office in May that the state crime lab had found Jason Cordova’s DNA on the woman’s body.
“Why would he attack an old woman when he has a young girlfriend and two children?” Adriana Cordova said.