A homeless man was charged Friday with entering a Pepperdine student’s Malibu residence and sexually assaulting her as she slept, prosecutors said.
Matthew Caleb Fairchild, 34, is accused of going into 20-year-old victim’s condo on the 23900 block of Civic Center Way around 3:45 a.m. on Feb. 8 and climbing the stairs into her bedroom before attacking her, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Sheriff’s investigators said the woman awoke to find herself being assaulted, and Fairchild apologized then quickly escaped the scene. He may have been intoxicated at the time, deputies said.
The defendant was arrested early Wednesday morning along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, two days after sheriff’s officials circulated surveillance images of the intruder.
He pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of assault with intent to commit a felony during the commission of a first-degree burglary and first-degree residential burglary with person present. Detectives previously said nothing was stolen from the apartment.
Malibu City Councilman Jefferson Wagner, who lives in the same condo complex as the victim, said he plans to follow the case “on the City Council level.”
Fairchild was convicted last year of receiving stolen property and in 2018 of assault likely to produce great bodily injury, the DA’s office said. No details were provided on those cases.
If convicted as charged in the Malibu case, he could face up to life in state prison.
The defendant was being held on $1 million bail and expected to return to court March 4.