Man charged in rape that occurred shortly after he left Clark County jail
A man is accused of raping a Las Vegas woman within hours of his release from jail.
Police said key pieces of evidence were left at the crime scene after the March 9 attack: two pairs of fluorescent orange boxer shorts labeled “CCDC,” for Clark County Detention Center, and a pair of orange socks.
Ramel Ortiz, 32, was arrested Thursday on sexual assault and other charges in connection with the rape. According to a Las Vegas police report, his DNA was found on the boxers and on the victim’s bedsheet.
Ortiz was released March 8 from the Clark County jail, about 10 hours before the woman was raped in her home.
The woman awoke to a knock at her bedroom door about 5:30 a.m. on March 9, expecting it to be her son leaving for work. When she opened the door wrapped in a sheet, a man with a handgun grabbed her by the sheet and forced her into her daughter’s room.
During the incident, the mother begged the intruder not to hurt her daughter, who was expected to arrive home from work sometime after 6 a.m., according to the police report. He then raped her multiple times.
The woman told police she complied with the man’s demands and tried to gain his trust.
“The only thing she was thinking about was her daughter,” the report states.
When the mother asked the intruder how he got in her house, he said he entered after her son left for work and that he had a friend who lived two houses down, according to the police report.
At one point, the intruder forced the mother into the shower and left the handgun on the floor outside the bathroom door. She told police that she wanted to grab the gun, but “couldn’t bring herself to do it,” according to the report.
She was assaulted for nearly two hours before her daughter returned home. The daughter was sitting on the couch, eating, when her mother walked into the living room, followed by the stranger.
The mother told her daughter not to call police, and that she and the man had “reached an agreement” that “the man would not touch her, the way he did her mother,” according to the report. The man sat on the couch next to the daughter and asked to borrow her phone. The mother told police that he was “very comfortable, as if it were his own home.”
He made two calls and then told the women they were all going to leave in their car. The mother told him to take the phone and vehicle, but he insisted that they go with him. The women then noticed that he no longer had the gun.
The mother told police that she “found the courage to escape” and took the opportunity to run out of the house to the car with her daughter, according to the report. The women called the victim’s husband and drove to a nearby shopping center, and the husband notified police.
When police arrived at the victim’s home to investigate, they found the clothing items labeled with “CCDC.” DNA recovered from the boxers and other items in the home was tested and resulted in a hit for Ortiz, according to the police report.
Ortiz has been charged with four counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, second-degree kidnapping and three counts of open or gross lewdness.
He was incarcerated Feb. 4 in a domestic battery case, and a judge ordered his release on March 8 after sentencing him to the time he already had spent in custody, records show. He was released at 7:15 p.m., according to the police report.
Court records also show that Ortiz has an extensive criminal history in Las Vegas dating to 2007. It includes multiple felony charges.
Contact Lawren Linehan at llinehan@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Follow @lawrenlinehan on Twitter.
