A notorious burglar and package pirate has been arrested for sexually assaulting a 43-year-old woman in her bed after sneaking into her Brooklyn Heights apartment, police said Friday.
Suspect Jayquan Martinez, 27, had been arrested for two separate break-ins at the same Brooklyn Heights apartment building on May 8, about four days before he snuck into a woman’s apartment near Middagh and Henry Sts., cops said.
At his arraignment for the two burglaries the next day, he was released and put back on the streets because none of the charges he was facing did not require bail, according to court papers.
Within a week, he had snuck into his victim’s apartment and tried to sexually assault her as she slept, cops said.
Detectives hot on the assailant’s trail zeroed in on Martinez Thursday after he was arrested in Crown Heights in possession of property that had been taken from a car parked in Brooklyn Heights, cops said.
The car had been broken into around the time the sex assault had occurred.
Investigators realized Martinez resembled the sketch of the person wanted for the Friday morning attack. He also looked like the man picked up on a surveillance camera near the crime scene, cops said.
The police’s case got stronger when they realized that most of the crimes he committed in the past few weeks were in the same general area, cops said.
On May 8 he was arrested trying to break into an apartment building on Joralemon St. near Henry St., according to court papers. He was also arrested for breaking into the same building on May 4, where he was caught on camera going into the basement and looting tenant packages, police sources said.
Martinez lives in downtown Brooklyn, about a mile from where the woman was attacked, police said.
She was asleep when Martinez broke into her apartment about 1:55 a.m., police said.
She woke up when he got on top of her, cops said. She screamed and he fled, taking her wallet with him.
The victim’s child was in the apartment, but not harmed, cops said.
Detectives charged Martinez with attempted criminal sex act, criminal possession of stolen property, attempted sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child.
His arraignment on the sex assault charges were pending Friday.