Woodland City Cemetery
WOODLAND—An 18-year-old man suspected of beating and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday, December 4 on charges that include rape and kidnapping.
Michael Isaiah Hernandez (18) of Esparto was arrested on Sunday, November 29 on suspicion of beating and sexually assaulting a teenage girl at the city’s cemetery Saturday before allegedly dragging her down a street. He was arraigned on Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court on charges including rape and kidnapping.
Hernandez is being held in Yolo County custody in lieu of $1.125 million bail in the violent attack of the girl at Woodland City Cemetery on Saturday, November 28.
Hernandez, a transient, faces six allegations, including kidnapping for rape and oral copulation; assault with intent to commit a sex crime on a minor; corporal injury on a person with whom the defendant had a dating or former dating relationship; and dissuading a witness.
According to allegations, Yolo County prosecutors said Hernandez attacked the girl at the cemetery, continuously hit and choked her, dragged her down a city street, and then told a witness not to call police.
Three different people called police when they saw a man beating a partially clothed woman at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Saturday near McKinley Avenue and Pendegast Street.
Police saw Hernandez in the backyard of a home in the 100 block of Bartlett Avenue, and despite setting up a perimeter around the block, were unable to catch him. They were able to arrest him the following day near a bus stop by the Raley’s on West Main Street in Woodland.
Police identified the teenage girl as Hernandez’s “on-again, off-again” girlfriend. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A preliminary hearing date by Yolo Superior Court Commissioner J. Kent O’Mara has been set for December 16.
