A 53-year-old man charged in a 2013 Las Cruces sexual assault will stay behind bars while he awaits trial.
Third Judicial District Attorney Fernando Macias announced Tuesday, Nov. 3, that District Judge Richard M. Jacquez granted the state's expedited pretrial detention motion for Juan Pablo Delgado-Palma, according to a news release from the DA's office.
Jacquez found that Delgado-Palma poses a danger to the community and that no release conditions would ensure the safety of others, the DA's office said. The judge heard testimony from the victim before making his ruling.
The case dates to Dec. 25, 2013, when a 16-year-old girl reported a sexual assault at a park near Doña Ana Road, according to the DA's office. She told Las Cruces police she had walked to the park after a fight with her boyfriend. She said she woke up in a ditch to a man on top of her before losing consciousness.
The victim described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 30s with a hazy eye. DNA was collected during a sexual assault examination and submitted to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but there was no immediate match.
The break came in 2025. A DNA sample was collected from Delgado-Palma after he was detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Albuquerque, the DA's office said. That sample was entered into CODIS and matched the evidence from the 2013 case.
During the detention hearing, a Las Cruces Police Department detective testified that Delgado-Palma's photo ID matched the physical description the victim provided in 2013, according to the DA's office.
Delgado-Palma was arrested Thursday, Oct. 29, and charged with one count of criminal sexual penetration of a minor, a second-degree felony, KTSM reported.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Heather Chavez, who is prosecuting the case, said in the DA's news release that the evidence and the victim's testimony support the detention. Chavez said Delgado-Palma has "a pattern of violating the law and violating orders of the court."
