Police suspect in Manhattan Heights burglary and sexual assault cases indicted on 3 felony charges

Arturo Valtierra, the man El Paso police say is responsible for burglaries and rapes in Manhattan Heights and a nearby neighborhood in recent months, has been indicted.

ABC-7 has obtained the felony indictment of Valtierra, also known as Arturo Valtierra-Payan.

A grand jury indicted the 25-year-old from Chihuahua, Mexico Wednesday with three felony charges stemming from just one of the three home-invasion sexual assaults police say he committed.

Valtierra, who lived on Savannah Street in Central El Paso, was arrested at about 11 p.m. July 2 in the 7200 block of Alameda and is now charged with burglary of a habitation and two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He is being detained at the El Paso County Jail Annex in East El Paso on a $300,000 bond.

The indictment, dated July 24, states Valtierra “threatened to cause the death” of the victim and through the “use of physical force and violence” “intentionally and knowingly” raped the victim.

The indictment also states Valtierra “did then and there by acts and words place [the victim], in fear that death would be imminently inflicted on [the victim].”

An ABC-7 source with intimate knowledge of the case tells us the case has been assigned to Judge Luis Aguilar’s 243rd District Court.

The source also said a judge has ordered Valtierra be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

A man named Arturo Valtierra-Payan with the same birth date as the man arrested in El Paso on the burglary charge was arrested in Chihuahua in 2009 for carrying an unlicensed weapon and served two years.

Twice in 2007, Valtierra was caught by the Border Patrol after illegally entering the U.S. and was deported back to Mexico, a federal official told ABC-7.

El Paso police are not releasing Valtierra’s mug shot because other charges are pending.