Pedro Arias-Santiago
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
