Juan Cruz-Ovilla, who also goes by
William Alexander Betancourt and Willmer
Posted on 08/08/2006 11:34:51 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A man suspected of preying on Brownsville women by climbing through their car windows and assaulting them has been spotted panhandling in Matamoros as late as this past weekend, police said.
Juan Cruz-Ovilla, 22, who is believed to be Honduran, was seen begging for food and money at a Matamoros market square, Brownsville Police Lt. James Paschall said Monday.
“He’s on the run. He’s pretty desperate,” Paschall said. “He has no money. He has no food.”
Paschall said police received the information from a reliable source and are contacting their counterparts in Matamoros for as-sistance in arresting Cruz-Ovilla, who police call a “predator” of unsuspecting women.
Authorities believe Cruz-Ovilla might be growing out his hair to change his appearance, since he is aware Brownsville police are looking for him. He escaped capture July 28 by running out the back door of a house that police were checking. Officers searched the area for several hours with tracking dogs but could not locate him.
They hope Matamoros police will arrest Cruz-Ovilla and extradite him to the United States to face at least one charge of aggra-vated sexual assault.
Cruz-Ovilla is accused of raping one Brownsville woman and assaulting another after scrabbling through their car windows in July at the Circle K Store at FM 802 and Old Port Isabel Road.
In both cases, he allegedly threatened the women with a machete.
The first incident happened July 1 and the second July 27, in the late evening and early morning hours.
A third occurred July 28.
On July 27, the victim managed to talk her way out of becoming another victim and convinced Cruz-Ovilla to let her go. The con-versation lasted about two hours, police said.
Since the July 28 incident, police had received several reported sightings of Cruz-Ovilla, who also goes by William Alexander Be-tancourt and Willmer, around the Brownsville area, but none had panned out, police said.
Brownsville police have a good working relationship with Matamoros police. Local officers have worked on several cases with their Mexican counterparts, including cases involving wanted suspects, Paschall said.
The last major joint effort was the January 2005 murder of Brownsville schoolteacher Gloria Esthela Cantu Manzanares, 30, of Brownsville.
Her husband, Norberto Manzanares, 30, killed his wife and then drove her body to Matamoros and blamed her death on armed thugs.
The husband claimed unknown assailants attacked them. Mexican police reported inconsistencies in his story, and an autopsy suggested that Gloria Manzanares had been killed several hours before she was reported dead.
Norberto Manzanares was found guilty of murdering his wife in April and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He announced plans to file an appeal.
lmartinez@brownsvilleherald.com
Machete Rapist Ping!
Being that he is Honduran, am I correct in assuming the Mexican authorities are only to happy to help in tracking him down?
If he is outside market square, as they say, you'd think they'd have been to appre-hend him by now. Hmmmm?
Was he the guy holding up a cardboard sign saying, "I won't rape you for food."?
Yeah, but if you can't read Spanish...
If he's on the run, he's safe from Border Patrol since suposedly they aren't allowed to pursue criminals. Head for a sanctuary city and he's safe from police. Sign up for college and Teddy will foot the bill. Oh, heck, Jorge will foot the bill for everything.
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