Home Intruder Who Raped Girl, 12, Held On $1.2M Bail: Police

CULVER CITY, CA — A 35-year-old man is being held on $1.2 million bail after being arrested this week on suspicion of breaking in to a family's Culver City home and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl last month, according to the Culver City Police Department.

Marcos Maldonado was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of sexual assault, police said.

Police responded to the home in the Blair Hills neighborhood at around 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 2 following a report that a man had entered the family's home some time between 2 and 3 a.m. and committed the assault. He left the residence on foot at around 7 a.m., police said.

Officers canvassed the area but were unable to locate the suspect. They did later obtain surveillance video from a nearby location that showed the suspect leaving the area after the assault, police said.

Maldonado was linked to the crime through DNA evidence. He was arrested Thursday on the 5 Freeway after leaving a downtown Los Angeles hotel and boarding a bus headed toward Bakersfield, police said.

The girl's parents told KTLA last month they believed the man entered their home through a balcony and that the man told the girl there was a shooter at her window.

"She's a soldier," the mother told NBC 4. "She's good on the outside. I think in time we will see what at the damage is."

City News Service contributed to this report.