Suspect Arrested in Rape of Woman in Santa Monica Apartment

By Jorge Casuso

June 6, 2018 -- Santa Monica police on Tuesday presented a case for filing in the rape of a woman in her Ocean Park apartment early Monday morning.

The suspect Dylan James Jensen, 42, entered the apartment in the 2900 block of 4th Street shortly before 6 a.m. and raped the tenant, who was sleeping in her bed, police said.

Dylan James Jensen (Courtesy SMPD)

Detectives determined the suspect entered through an unlocked sliding door of an elevated patio, said Lt. Saul Rodriguez, the police department spokesman. "The suspect retrieved a knife from the kitchen and proceeded to the victim’s bedroom while she was sleeping in her bed," Rodriguez said. "The victim was awoken by the suspect (who) forced himself on the victim and sexually assaulted her." Police who responded to a radio call for service located Jensen near 3rd Street and Ashland Avenue and detained him for an investigation.

Jensen was booked for rape, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual battery, burglary, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon and probation violation.

Final charges are pending the District Attorney’s Office review.

Jensen remains in custody with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office with no bail options pending future court proceedings.

In a similar incident earlier this year, a burglary suspect attempted to assault and rape a woman at knifepoint in her apartment near Downtown.

In that case, the suspect Rashad Devon Harris, 25, broke into the apartment in the 1700 block of 5th Street at around 3:30 a.m. and stabbed the victim multiple times with a knife he took from her kitchen, police said.

The victim fought back, inflicting a wound on his hand before he fled, police said ("Santa Monica Police Arrest Suspect in Violent Home Invasion Robbery," February 27, 2018).

Reports of rape increased in Santa Monica last year, from 40 in 2016 to 57 in 2017.

It was part of a general hike in violent crime, which jumped from 475 reported in 2016 to 705 reported last year ("Violent Crime in Santa Monica Jumps Almost 50 Percent to Reach Highest Level in Two Decades," May 14, 2018).

Anyone with information related to this week's incident should call Detective Murphy at (310) 458-8941, Sergeant Williams (310) 458-8475 or the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8491.