A 49-year-old California man has been booked into the Sonoma County Jail on six felony charges for allegedly abducting and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old as she walked to school and attempting to abduct a second student, police said Wednesday.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as Jesse Leon Granado-Lopez of Sonoma.
Staff at Altimira Middle School in Sonoma called police just before 8 a.m. Tuesday to report that a student had been kidnapped and assaulted while she walked to school that morning. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that while deputies investigated the call, dispatchers received another call around 8:30 am from a second victim saying a man had tried to kidnap her.
Granado-Lopez was being held without bail pending a Thursday court appearance. The Sonoma County Jail did not list any legal representation for Granado-Lopez and Sonoma County Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi said her office had not been assigned to the case.
The first victim said she was walking to school when a man allegedly grabbed her at knifepoint and forced her into his car, drove her to another location and sexually assaulted her in the car, the sheriff’s statement said. He then allegedly drove her to a different location and let her go.
The man is believed to have then returned to the same intersection where he abducted the first victim, about a half-mile from the school, and parked his car. He approached a second victim who was walking to school and tried to grab her, but she fought back and was able to get away, then called 911, the sheriff’s department said.
Both victims gave similar descriptions of the suspect and his car, leading authorities to find and arrest Granado-Lopez within about two hours.
He was booked into Sonoma County Jail on six felony charges, including rape, attempted kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor using force.