Suspected serial rapist is caught in Spring
Federal authorities apprehended suspected serial rapist Brandon Carter at a Spring area apartment Wednesday morning, about 24 hours after Houston police publicly identified him as being wanted for the sexual assaults of three women.
An anonymous tip led members of the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force to a gated complex at 1000 Cypress Station, where marshals eyed him going in and out of an apartment. Officers knocked on the door, Carter came outside and was arrested around 10:30 a.m. without incident, U.S. Marshals spokesman Cameron Welch said.
By afternoon, there was no sign that law enforcement had swarmed the complex to take him into custody.
Carter, 28, was identified Tuesday as a suspect in three assaults that investigators described as methodical. He is believed to have stalked and waited until his victims were alone.
The attacker in at least two of the three assaults forced the women to shower away any trace of DNA evidence, police said. The three assaults happened last June and December, and this January, police said.
No details were immediately available about the apartment where Carter was found, and whether anyone there helped him hide after two warrants for debit card abuse — stemming from the use of a victim’s stolen card — and aggravated sexual assault were issued Jan. 31 for his arrest. The latest attack happened on Jan. 5.
A second count of aggravated sexual assault was filed Wednesday night for last month’s sexual assault. A request was also made that Carter undergo a mental illness or intellectual disability assessment, court records show. He is slated to return to court Thursday morning.
Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties would not provide additional comment on the arrest.
On Tuesday night, Carter walked into his probable cause hearing wearing a gray jacket and green athletic shorts. The judge set his bond at $100,000 for each aggravated sexual assault charge and $25,000 for the credit and debit card abuse charge.
A public defender at the hearing said Carter grew up in Houston. He works in construction making about $5,000 a month, the public defender said.
The prosecutor argued for a higher bond because he “terrorized” at least two women.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch to call him a serial rapist,” the prosecutor said.
After the warrants were issued in January, tracking Carter down was difficult for investigators, who were told he did not have a cellphone.
Detectives linked two Greater Greenspoint addresses to Carter, including a home owned by his father, according to county records. No one there answered the door in the hours after Carter’s arrest.
According to court documents, the father pointed an investigator to a home about two miles away where Carter often stayed. One of the occupants, a man, was identified as having been with Carter when police said he withdrew about $400 with the stolen debit card.
A woman at the second home said Carter often drifted in and out, usually to stay for a few days at a time. Sometimes she would not see him for weeks, then he would show up “out of nowhere,” she said, asking not to be identified.
She said Carter was her boyfriend’s grade school friend. She knew very little about him other than that he was quiet.
Police on Tuesday detailed the three attacks, two of which happened in June and December 2019
— and a third that occurred last month. During the latest incident, a woman said her attacker ambushed her outside her apartment as she left for work and that he forced her back inside at gunpoint, court records show.
The man covered her face with a hood and bound her with zip ties. The woman told police that Carter sexually assaulted her and later made her gargle with mouthwash, according to prosecutors.
Police cite his taking of her debit card as the mistake that led investigators to him. The card was used at a convenience store in the 600 block of Greens Road, authorities said.
Police encountered Carter last April when they arrested him on traffic tickets. He had a bag containing a BB gun, latex gloves, two sets of blacked-out goggles, nine zipties, a pair of pruning shears, rope and a trash bag.