Weeks after moving to Seattle, a 32-year-old man is accused of entering his neighbors’ house and raping a 21-year-old University of Washington student as she slept in her bed, according to King County prosecutors.
Brandon Robinson, who later told Seattle police he moved here from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 20, was charged Friday with second-degree rape and first-degree burglary with sexual motivation. He was arrested Tuesday, two days after the alleged rape, and remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail, jail and court records show.
The charges say Robinson has a prior conviction in Pennsylvania for aggravated assault.
“In this case, the defendant unlawfully entered the victim’s bedroom while she slept and raped her while she was physically helpless. When the victim awoke, the defendant quickly fled the bedroom, leaving behind his boots,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Christian Brown wrote in charging papers. “What makes this case more alarming is that it appears the defendant was prowling through windows in the neighborhood prior to entering the victim’s bedroom.”
Court records do not yet indicate which attorney is representing Robinson.
According to the charges:
The 21-year-old victim is one of 12 female roommates who share a house in Seattle’s University District, next door to Robinson’s apartment building.
The woman and two of her roommates returned home together after going to some parties Jan. 23. The woman went to bed and her roommates stayed up until 3 a.m. on Jan. 24.
The woman, who wore jeans, a belt and a body suit to bed, woke up naked to an unknown man raping her. She fought him and yelled for him to leave and he fled her room, leaving behind a face mask, a bottle cap and black Timberland boots.
The woman reported the rape to Seattle police, who took the mask, cap and boots as evidence, and she underwent a sexual-assault examination at University of Washington hospital.
While she was at the hospital, a man came to the back door of the woman’s house and asked for his boots. One of the woman’s roommates took a photo of the man and sent it to a police officer, who sent the photo to other officers in the Seattle Police Department.
Another officer recognized the man in the photo as the same man he had contacted around 2 a.m. on Jan. 24, three hours before the woman was raped, after receiving a report of a prowler in the neighborhood, the charges say. That officer identified the man as Robinson and provided the address Robinson had given him.
After conducting surveillance on his residence, police arrested Robinson at his apartment; he was wearing a new pair of black Timberland boots that were the same size as the ones police took into evidence.
Police say Robinson — who told detectives he had been drinking and didn’t recall having sex with anyone the day of the rape — identified himself as the man in the photo taken by the woman’s roommate and a still shot taken from the body-worn video camera of the officer who responded to the earlier prowler call, according to the charges.