A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman after offering her a ride home was arrested and charged on Wednesday.
Cesar Manuel Felix, 26, of Morgantown, is charged with second-degree sexual assault by the Morgantown Police Department.
The alleged assault was reported to the MPD about 4:30 a.m. on May 14, 2016, according to a criminal complaint.
The victim told police she was at Casa D’Amici’s passed out in a booth when a Hispanic male offered to give her a ride home, the complaint said. The victim accepted the ride and ended up in a gravel parking lot where the man asked her if she wanted to come inside his house, but she said no.
The man then got out of the car, opened her door and tried to force her out, but she didn’t let him, the complaint said. The man then pulled the victim’s pants and underwear down to her ankles and held her down in the passenger seat. The woman fought back, loudly screamed and the man stopped and left the area.
The woman said the man’s penis “at least” touched her vagina, according to the complaint.
She went back to Casa D’Amichi and asked to see the video. A man in the video looked familiar and she was told he was an employee, the complaint said. A MPD detective identified the man as Felix, obtained his phone number and contacted him for an interview.
In the interview, Felix said he remembered seeing the victim outside when he left to move his car from the back lot to the lot across from the restaurant, the complaint said. Felix denied giving the victim a ride home and having sex with her and “willingly provided” a DNA sample.
The sample from the victim’s sex crimes kit and Felix’s DNA sample were sent to the West Virginia State Police Lab for testing.
An MPD detective received a DNA report dated November 21, 2018, from Marshall University on August 16, 2019, the complaint said. The report said Felix’s DNA was a positive match with male DNA found in the sex crimes kit.
Felix is being held in North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
