Two arrested in Sonoma sexual assault, beating

Two men were in custody Monday, suspected of beating and raping a woman in an hourslong assault that started with her kidnapping from a San Francisco street corner and ended in Sonoma where she escaped, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The men, from Sonoma and Novato, forced the 24-year-old woman into their car April 14, as she waited for a ride-share car to take her to her San Francisco home, Sgt. Spencer Crum said Monday.

The assaults started in the back seat of a station wagon with a male passenger who choked, beat and assaulted her and continued on the drive to Sonoma where both men attacked her, Crum said. He outlined an investigation involving extensive surveillance videos obtained from businesses in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties, as well as evidence from almost two dozen search warrants, Crum said.

In Sonoma, parked in a strip mall parking lot along Fifth Street West, she was able to escape the car and run and flag down a Sonoma Safeway employee. The employee called 911 at 4:45 a.m. and stayed with her until help arrived.

Shoeless, and with her cellphone and identification missing, she was taken to Sonoma Valley Hospital and interviewed by deputies.

Detectives this weekend arrested Christian Alejandro May Quintero, 24, of Sonoma and Fredi Analberto Lopez-Flores, 33, of Novato. The two friends are suspected of several felony charges but Quintero also was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide, based on her being choked and badly beaten, Crum said.

Crum said the woman was a random victim and the two men weren’t connected to any car-for-hire company.

The woman told investigators she’d been drinking Friday night at a bar in San Francisco’s Mission District. Not long before closing, early Saturday, she’d called for a car to get her home. The woman, who was intoxicated, had gotten her ride but only went a short way when she realized she’d given the driver the wrong address.

She got out at Stanyan and Fulton streets and called another company for a ride. She was waiting for that car when Lopez-Flores drove up and Quintero forced her into the back seat, Crum said.

In Sonoma, the driver parked in a strip mall parking lot in Quintero’s neighborhood. There the assaults involved both men, according to the investigation. A surveillance video clip from an area gas station showed Lopez-Flores walking up to the station where he bought a condom. Detectives suspect he then got into the car and sexually assaulted her, said Crum.

The investigation included getting data from the victim’s cellphone, which showed what time she crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.

That led to a search warrant seeking bridge surveillance video. Detectives zeroed in on a black Dodge Magnum with a blue neon light on the license plate that was on the bridge at the same time. The station wagon also turned up on surveillance video from Sonoma businesses, Crum said.

Detectives sent the car description to regional law enforcement. A Novato police officer recognized it from a recent arrest and impoundment - the Dodge Magnum was still in the police tow yard - and gave detectives Lopez-Flores’ name.

A search warrant for Lopez-Flores’ cellphone records placed him in San Francisco that April 14 morning, near where the woman was forced into the car, and had him crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at the same time as the victim and her cellphone crossed the bridge, headed to Sonoma, Crum said.

Quintero, a friend of Lopez-Flores, became a suspect. A search of the man’s Sonoma home turned up evidence linking him to the crime, Crum said, declining to reveal any evidence taken from the car or house.

He also declined to say whether the woman’s black boots or identification were recovered during the investigation.

Crum outlined an investigation that became the priority of the domestic violence and sexual assault investigation team of five detectives and a sergeant that involved more than 2,000 hours of work, about 20 search warrants and hours of watching surveillance video.

“It’s probably one of the most extensive investigations we’ve done in a long, long time,” Crum said. “The work they did, it was a lot of time and effort and a little bit of good luck.”

Lopez-Flores was arrested Friday in San Rafael. Quintero was arrested the next day in Sonoma.

Lopez-Flores was being held in the Sonoma County Jail Monday in lieu of $2 million bail, suspected of felony charges involving rape, sexual assault and kidnapping.

Quintero was being held without bail, suspected of felony charges of rape and multiple counts of sexual assaults, kidnapping, assault causing great bodily injury and attempted homicide.