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Rapist Allegedly Returns To Wheelchair-Bound Woman's Home To Beat, Strangle, And Threaten Her
The woman now says she’s “overwhelmed and scared” as Francisco Carranza-Ramirez remains on the run.
Authorities are searching for a convicted rapist who they say returned to the home of his wheel-bound victim just days after being released from jail to beat, strangle and threaten to kill her.
Francisco Carranza-Ramirez, 35, remains at large after the alleged attack Sunday—which took place in front of the victim’s young son—leaving the woman feeling “overwhelmed and scared,” she told local station KIRO.
Carranza-Ramirez was released Thursday after serving nearly nine months in prison for raping the wheelchair-bound 32-year-old on two different occasions in September 2018.
Just two days after his release, Carranza-Ramirez, who is believed to be homeless, allegedly violated a protection order requiring him to stay away from his partially paralyzed victim, by being within 1,000 feet of the victim.
“He was just at a distance, just like staring at me,” she said.
The next day, he allegedly broke into her home and violently attacked her.
“He actually assaulted her, hit her with something on the head, knocking her off her wheelchair and then he strangled her, threatening to kill her,” Sgt. Ryan Abbott of the King County Sheriff’s Office said, according to Seattle station KCPQ.
Carranza-Ramirez is now on the run, as he faces a series of new charges in the latest incident.
The violence began in September 2018 when the victim began to have small talk with a man she had seen around in her neighborhood. She did not know Carranza-Ramirez before he approached her, but she later told investigators she had casually let it slip where she and her son had planned to go to dinner. Carranza-Ramirez soon showed up at the same restaurant, taking a seat at her table, according to court documents obtained by KOMO.
She offered to give him a ride home since she knew they lived in the same neighborhood. After the ride, Carranza-Ramirez followed her into her apartment and sexually assaulted her while her 2-year-old child was in the next room.
She would later tell investigators she had been “afraid for her safety and the safety of her young son. And, given her physical impairments and the fact that she is wheelchair bound, the victim was unable to and afraid to physically resist the defendant beyond telling him to stop,” the documents said.
Carranza-Ramirez raped her again two days later, but she was able to call 911 during the attack, hiding phone in her wheelchair, until authorities were able to arrive.
He pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in February and received a sentence Thursday of 12 months, but the judge credited him with time served and he was able to be released the same day, The Seattle Times reports.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office had asked the court to impose community custody as a condition of his release, meaning that he would be supervised after leaving jail, however, Carranza-Ramirez’s attorney had argued against the condition.
Nicole Hecklinger, who represented Carranza-Ramirez, had asked that community custody not be imposed in the case so that Carranza-Ramirez would be able to return to Mexico.
Judge Nicole Gaines-Phelps agreed not to impose community custody and ordered Carranza-Ramirez to board a plane to California on Monday. He had been planning to later cross the border into Mexico by land and would be required to provide documentation to the court that he had arrived in Mexico.
"I went out of the courtroom, just like, hysterically crying,” the victim told KIRO. "It was really scary to me that the courts found it acceptable to trust a rapist to just get released and say what he says he's going to do.”
Rather than follow the judge’s orders, which included that he stay away from the victim in the case, Carranza-Ramirez allegedly decided to attack his victim again.
Authorities are now asking the public’s help to find Carranza-Ramirez. He's been described by authorities as 5'8" and 140 pounds.
He was charged Tuesday with second-degree assault, felony harassment, intimidating a witness and violation of a sexual assault protection order in this latest attack.
Abbott said Tuesday the woman, her 3-year-old son, and service dog have all been moved to a safe location, the local paper reports.
