Convicted rapist arrested on sexual assault charges in 1995 attack
A DNA match led to a man’s arrest more than 26 years after a Las Vegas woman reported being raped, police said.
Francisco Maldonado, 48, was arrested on a warrant Feb. 22 and booked on five counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon, according to jail records.
Maldonado was matched to a DNA sample taken Nov. 20, 1995, after a woman reported that she was raped at a bus stop, according to the suspect’s arrest report.
The woman said she was walking from the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, then located at 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North, when a man came up behind her, wrapped a cord around her neck and raped her.
“During the entire incident, he threatened her with a knife and told her he would cut her face if she fought or screamed,” Las Vegas police wrote in the arrest report.
In June 2019, DNA from the woman matched Maldonado’s DNA. Police said he was in a California prison serving time for a 2003 rape.
Detectives called the woman in 2019, but she did not want to move forward with prosecuting the case.
In an interview with Maldonado in November 2019, he claimed the woman was a sex worker whom he had refused to pay, and he denied using a deadly weapon. In a second interview the following month, he said he would only admit to sexual assault, according to the arrest report.
A warrant was issued in February 2020 from Las Vegas Justice Court, and Maldonado is being held without bail, according to court records. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
