Police arrest Merced man weeks after victim publicly posts about her alleged rape

A Merced County man has been arrested in connection with the sexual assault of a 26-year-old woman in her home last month.

Angelo William Powers, 33, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, Merced Police Capt. Don King said.

Powers was refused by the Merced County jail due to a significant medical issues that may take three to five days to clear, King said, adding Powers won’t be released and will continue to be in the police department’s custody until he is booked into jail.

“I’m really relieved and happy he got arrested,” said the victim, who spoke with the Sun-Star on Wednesday morning. The Sun-Star doesn’t release the names of victims of sexual assault.

Powers is accused of breaking into the victim’s home near 12th Street and T Street shortly before midnight on June 12 through an unlocked front door and raping her in her bedroom while she was in a drowsy sleep due to taking her prescribed Zoloft medication, according to the victim and police.

The victim said she kept her door unlocked because she expected her boyfriend to come over. So when she was still under the influence of the medication, she initially thought Powers was her boyfriend, she said.

But after she started to regain consciousness, she said she suspected something was wrong and rushed to flip the bedroom light switch.

That’s when she saw Powers, whom she didn’t know, putting his clothes back on. She said Powers rushed out of the home after she started taking photos of him through her phone and telling him she was calling police.

Officers arrived shortly after Powers fled the home, she said.

The victim said she showed the photos to people in the area who identified the person as Powers. Investigators also identified Powers as a possible suspect through the photos, according to a news release.

Then, in what authorities said is a rare move, the victim publicly posted the photos to social media, detailing her sexual assault with Powers’ identity and asking the public for help in finding him.

Detectives had identified and talked to Powers in the following weeks but didn’t arrest him until the California Department of Justice sent back conclusive DNA results from a sexual assault kit that linked Powers to the rape.

Detective Sam Sannadan obtained an arrest warrant for Powers on Monday, according to the news release. He was arrested on Tuesday in the 1300 block of West 18th Street.

The victim also filed a restraining order against Powers, according to Merced Superior Court records, after he reportedly stopped by her house several times trying to peer into her window and open her front door.

The latest visit was on Sunday afternoon, she said. The next day she called the Valley Crisis Center, which provided her support.

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Anyone with information on the sexual assault or on Powers is being urged to contact Sannadan at 209-388-7773, or the Merced Police Department tipster line at 209-385-7826. Anonymous text messages can be sent by texting the number “TIP411,” or “847411,” and including the word “Comvip” as the text message keyword.

This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 10:02 AM.