PRINCETON: Man charged in burglary and rape accused of earlier burglary on same street

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The illegal immigrant charged in Wednesday’s burglary and rape on Birch Avenue allegedly committed a burglary on the same section of that street two weeks earlier, police said Friday.
Pedro Arias-Santiago was charged with burglary and harassment in an alleged offense on June 14 at 5 a.m. when authorities said they believe he entered the occupied house through an unlocked door, on the 200th block of Birch.
Police said a 19-year-old woman from Illinois was home at the time and confronted Mr. Arias-Santiago. Police, in the weekly blotter entry for the incident released Friday, did not specify the gender of the victim, but information obtained by the Princeton Packet indicated the person is a female.
“The victim was not sexually assaulted in this case,” a police blotter item read. “The victim filed the report subsequent to the initial investigation.”
A police spokesman could not be reached for comment Friday.
The announcement follows Mr. Arias-Santiago’s arrest this week on charges that he allegedly entered a residence on that same part of Birch, raped a sleeping 28-year-old woman and stole some of her clothes, including her undergarments.
He is being held at the Mercer County Correction Center on $200,000 bail in Wednesday’s case and $50,000 bail in the case from two weeks ago.
Mr. Arias-Santiago, 26, is from Guatemala, having lived for the past three months in an apartment on Leigh Avenue. Federal Immigration and Customs