Update, April 11: Police are seeking new leads and information after arresting 20-year-old Jonathan Michael Castellanos-Miller of Concord in connection with a March 26 assault.
Police asked any other potential victims to contact the department’s sex crimes unit at 510-981-5735.
Detectives have begun to investigate “a similar crime,” which took place March 1 in the 2400 block of Warring Street, “but the victim in the case has not come forward to report the incident,” police said in a Nixle alert.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has already charged Castellanos-Miller with attempted forcible rape and other felonies in the March 26 incident.
Originally set at $100,000, Castellanos-Miller’s bail was later increased to $500,000, according to the Santa Rita Jail’s inmate records. He remained in custody there Tuesday.
Original, April 7: A Concord man is facing several felony charges after police say he followed and sexually assaulted a woman in a secluded parking lot on Blake Street.
Jonathan Michael Castellanos-Miller, 20, began tailing the woman around 9:15 p.m. on March 26, following her along Shattuck Avenue from Bancroft Way to Blake, according to a declaration of probable cause Berkeley police filed in the case.
“Castellanos-Miller tackled the victim into a dark and unlit parking,” according to the report. Police said he then held the struggling woman down and groped her genitals while masturbating, at one point standing up and forcing her further into the lot behind a large van before forcing her back to the ground to continue the assault.
The lot had walls on three sides and, unlike Shattuck nearby, Blake is a “poorly lit residential street,” police said.
After several minutes, Castellanos-Miller left the area on foot, police said.
“Castellanos-Miller never demanded any property and did not take anything from the victim,” according to the police report. “The victim believed she was going to be raped.”
Police were able to identify Castellanos-Miller from “foreign male DNA” found on the woman’s clothes and also found surveillance footage of him following and attacking her, they said. When police arrested him Wednesday and searched his vehicle and home, they also found two replica firearms and handcuffs, they said.
Castellanos-Miller “denied coming to Berkeley or knowing (or) ever seeing the victim,” according to the report.
On Thursday, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed charges of kidnapping to commit a sex crime, attempted forcible rape and assault with intent to commit a sex crime against Castellanos-Miller. He remains in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of a $100,000 bail. He is scheduled for a plea hearing on April 19.
Berkeley police did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
The Berkeley Scanner first reported the arrest and charges.
