Prosecutor: Santa Rosa woman ‘tricked’ into sex with wrong man

A 22-year-old Santa Rosa woman testified in court Monday she was having sex one night last summer with a man she thought was her lover. Suddenly, the lights came on and she realized she was with someone else.

She pushed the naked man off the bed and ran into a bathroom where it dawned on her she was the victim of a cruel trick, she said.

“I just kind of freaked out,” said the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, in Sonoma County Superior Court. “I was in shock.”

She identified the man as Jesus Reyes-Perez, also 22, who sat across from her Monday in Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite’s courtroom in a blue jail uniform. After hearing the woman’s testimony, the judge ruled Reyes-Perez could be tried on three felonies including raping a person who thought he was her spouse.

He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. He returns to court July 11 for further proceedings.

Police are still searching for the woman’s lover, Enrique Velasquez, 20, who fled and has since disappeared. He is believed to have played a role in the alleged assault, prosecutor Barbara Nanney said.

The bizarre chain of events happened July 14, 2015, at the woman’s Earle Street apartment.

She testified she knew both men but was only romantically involved with Velazquez. Reyes-Perez had texted her a month earlier asking for sex, but she said no, she testified.

The night of the incident she reached out to Velazquez through Facebook to set up the late-night rendezvous, she said.

He arrived about 11 p.m., let himself into the unlocked one-bedroom, one-bath apartment she shared with a girlfriend and the two smoked pot in her bedroom, she said.

Velazquez darkened the room and they began having sex, she said. At some point, they were interrupted by the roommate, who came home and requested a cigarette by yelling though the adjoining wall, she said.

Velazquez left the bedroom to give her one. When the door opened again and quickly closed, the woman testified she assumed the naked man who got back into her bed was Velasquez.

They continued having oral sex and intercourse for an unspecified time before the roommate, who slept in the living room with two young children, barged in to use the bathroom, the woman said.

Light flooded the bedroom when the roommate walked out and the woman realized for the first time the man with her was not who she thought he was, she said.

The woman testified she shoved Reyes-Perez out of bed and ran into the bathroom, crying. She reported the incident to police the next day. Reyes-Perez was arrested and held on $300,000 bail.

In court Monday, the woman answered questions from a defense attorney about how she could mistake the two men. She said that although they are different heights, she couldn’t tell them apart because it was so dark and Reyes-Perez didn’t utter a sound.

Reyes-Perez showed no reaction as the woman talked.

“There’s not a scintilla of evidence he attempted to have sex with her without her consent,” said his attorney, Justin Milligan.

However, prosecutors said Reyes-Perez made no effort to reveal who he was. And the judge said it was clear from the earlier text that the woman was not interested in having sex with Reyes-Perez.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@ppayne.