Sonoma County Sexual Assault Suspect Captured

SONOMA COUNTY, CA -- A homeless man has been arrested for sexually assaulting a developmentally disabled person whom he befriended in Rohnert Park, police say.

On Jan. 18, Rohnert Park police detectives investigated a sexual assault case where a 44-year-old developmentally disabled male said he met a stranger in the Expressway Center shopping center located in the 600 block of Rohnert Park Expressway.

The male subject befriended the victim by purchasing a soda for him, and the suspect and victim ended up going to the victim’s apartment nearby, where the victim was assaulted, according to police.

At around 9:30 am on Jan. 19, one of the detectives working the case was driving around the area where the suspect and victim met and noticed 53-year-old Richard Wells, who is transient in Rohnert Park, standing next to a van in the parking lot of 587 Rohnert Park Expressway.

The detective noticed that Wells -- seen in the above booking photo -- matched surveillance video images of the suspect and was wearing similar clothing. When shown the images, Wells admitted to being the person in the surveillance images. The victim was then brought to the scene where he positively identified Wells as the suspect.

Wells admitted to going back to the victim’s apartment and having a sexual encounter with the victim knowing the victim had a mental disability. Wells was arrested and booked into the Sonoma County jail for sodomy of a victim incapable of giving consent, oral copulation with a victim incapable of giving consent, penetration with a foreign object, and burglary for entering into the apartment with the victim with the intent to commit a felony.

Image via Rohnert Park Police