Affidavit: Man entered apartment via unlocked door, attempted to rape woman

A woman told El Paso Police the man who broke into her apartment and tried to rape her is the same man who followed her to a bus stop three days before the alleged break-in, a criminal complaint states.

Police charged Joseph Compean, 21, of the 5700 block of Wren, with Burglary of Habitation.

Compean was allegedly able to enter the woman’s apartment the night of April 25, 2019 because the front door to the apartment was unlocked, police said. The alleged burglary happened at the complex at 3917 Flory in Northeast El Paso.

The 22-year-old woman told police she was asleep on her futon when she woke up and noticed a man inside her apartment. The woman turned on the lights and began to scream.

At that point, the man allegedly approached the woman, forced her back onto her futon and covered her mouth with his hands, the criminal complaint states. As the woman attempted to fight the man, he allegedly told her, “Let me (expletive) you or I will kill you,” the court document states.

The woman told police the man had his shorts down as he attempted to rape her. She was able to bite the man’s hand and get him to let her go. The man eventually ran away, the woman said.

During a police interview, the woman told police she recognized her attacker as the same man who followed her to a bus stop on the 5600 block of Dyer three days before the break-in. The woman was able to provide detectives with a description of the man’s facial features.

On April 26, 2019, the woman called police to let them know she spotted her alleged attacker at the corner of Flory and Partello, then saw him run away into an apartment unit at a complex on the 3900 block of Levell. The woman told police she then observed several other men, including a man she knew from her high school days, leave the complex in a recreational vehicle.

Police started conducting surveillance of the area and eventually pulled over the recreational vehicle driven by the man the woman knew from high school. Although the man is identified in court documents, ABC-7 will not identify him because he has not been charged in connection to the case. The man identified the suspect who allegedly broke into the woman’s apartment as Compean, the criminal complaint states.

During a voluntary interview, the man allegedly told police Compean told him about the break-in and the failed attempt to rape the woman.

On April 27, detectives provided a photo lineup and the woman identified Compean as the man who broke into her apartment.

Police arrested Compean at his home and booked him into the El Paso County Detention Facility under $100,000 bond.