A hit from a nationwide DNA database led to the arrest of a Hispanic suspect in a recent Newport News sexual assault

Jorge Perez-Paez, 23, was arrested at Salsa's Mexican Grill on Mariners Row. He is charged with rape, forcible sodomy, abduction, malicious wounding, robbery and attempted first-degree murder. The charges stem from an incident during the pre-dawn hours of July 2, 2011 when a 25-year-old Newport News woman was attacked and sexually assaulted as she was walking home from Port Warwick. The woman told police that her assailant had approached her on a bicycle, punched her in the face, and then forced her into a wooded area where he sexually assaulted her. DNA evidence was sent to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, and a profile was submitted to the National DNA Databank. The database identified the DNA as a match for Perez-Paez, who had been investigated in a similar assault in Fresno, Calif., and who had relocated to Newport News. According to the police report, the DNA match between the California case and the Newport News case would be expected to occur in approximately 1 in 860 quadrillion Hispanics. The victim sustained a broken nose and eye socket in the assault. The attacker told her that she was going to die in the woods. He choked her until she was unconscious and left her buried beneath a pile of leaves in a ditch. When she regained consciousness she was able to walk for help.