The case was made formal last week against an area homeless man linked to a string of violent sexual attacks in and around Santa Monica.
Pablo Carlos Pineda was arraigned July 21 at the Airport Courthouse in Los Angeles on a series of charges in connection with four assaults, including two within the coastal city, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Pineda, 32, faces three counts of forcible rape, two counts each of assault with intent to commit a sex crime, kidnapping and second-degree robbery and one count each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon, Deputy District Attorney Oksana Sigal said.
Pineda, who officials said was living in the Santa Monica area, could spend 25 years to life in prison if convicted as charged, according to the district attorney’s office.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 29, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records show.
Authorities have identified Pineda as a suspect in sexual attacks on four women over the last seven months.
The first was reported to have occurred Jan. 13 in Santa Monica in the 1200 block of the beach. The second incident, which happened Feb. 5, was an alleged rape in the same general area, prosecutors said.
In the third attack April 15 in the 9000 block of Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, the alleged victim was “beaten with a brick and suffered great bodily injury,” prosecutors said.
A kidnapping and rape in the 1300 block of Westgate Avenue in Los Angeles, which authorities said they have linked to Pineda, occurred July 2.
Authorities located Pineda on July 19 in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles following an extensive multi-agency probe involving officers from the Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles police departments as well as FBI investigators, according to an SMPD press release.
Pineda was taken into custody, booked at the Santa Monica jail and initially held on $385,000 bail in connection with charges stemming from the two Santa Monica incidents. The bail amount increased to $2.63 million following review of all four incidents by the district attorney’s office.
The case remains under investigation by the Santa Monica Police Department, and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying any potential victims or witnesses. Anyone with information is urged to contact Santa Monica police at 310-458-8218, Beverly Hills police at 310-285-2160 or Los Angeles police at 213-486-6931.
Other serial sexual crimes have involved Santa Monica in recent years, according to Daily Press archives.
In May 2015, officers detained 33-year-old Antonio Montano in connection with four sexual assaults, including three in Santa Monica. In all of the attacks, officials said, Montano grabbed the victims from behind and pinned their arms to their bodies. He attempted to rape each woman, but they all escaped.
In August 2012, Edric Dashell Gross was arrested in Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles. He was accused of raping and murdering two women in Santa Monica in 2001 and 2002 and was linked to both murders through DNA processing. He was recently convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Daily Press intern Ryder Davis contributed to this report.
