Police have arrested a Santa Barbara man accused of raping a 15-year-old girl while at a party on the city’s Westside.
Domonick Alonzo Love, 18, was arrested on charges of rape by force, violence, duress, menace or fear, rape by intoxication preventing the victim from resisting and unlawful intercourse with a minor less than three years younger than the perpetrator, according to Sgt. Riley Harwood of the Santa Barbara Police Department.
Officers responded last Thursday to the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Emergency Room to investigate a rape, and Harwood said the investigation revealed that the victim, a 15-year-old girl from Santa Barbara, met with acquaintances from the downtown Santa Barbara homeless community the previous evening.
The girl accompanied one of those people, whom she knew by the moniker “Slim,” to a party on Santa Barbara’s Westside, where “the victim became intoxicated at the party and was subsequently raped by her companion,” Harwood said.
Based on his moniker and descriptions provided of the suspect’s appearance and tattoos, several Santa Barbara police officers recognized the suspect as Love, Harwood said, adding that Love has had numerous contacts with police in Santa Barbara’s downtown corridor since last fall.
Love had been interviewed by a local news station earlier in the day for a story about police cracking down on transient youth on State Street, and the story featured Love and depicted his name as “Slim” on the bottom of the television screen, Harwood said.
An arrest warrant was obtained last Friday, and officers and detectives canvassed the downtown corridor and area campsites, but were unsuccessful at finding Love.
On Monday, Love was contacted in Santa Ynez by a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputy investigating a disturbance in the 900 block of North Refugio Road. The deputy recognized Love as a wanted subject from a law enforcement bulletin and arrested him, Harwood said.
Love was transported to the Santa Barbara Police Department, where he was interviewed and evidence was collected. He was then booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
