Man Ordered Detained Ahead Of Trial For Attempted Murder In Point Pleasant

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — A man facing attempted murder and aggravated assault charges after an attack on a woman in Point Pleasant Borough will remain detained ahead of his trial.

Borough resident Juan Santiago-Rojas, 31, had been on the run for more than a year after the August 2022 attack, but was arrested in December in North Carolina. He was extradited to Ocean County on Jan. 12, and Judge Rochelle Gizinski ordered that he remain detained in the Ocean County Jail on Jan. 26.

Officials initially issued a warrant for Santiago-Rojas the day after the attack.

Point Pleasant police were called to a home on Butler Avenue on Aug. 22, 2022, for a report of an unconscious woman, and found the woman with serious injuries to her head and neck, the prosecutor said.

The woman was taken to Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, but the extent of her injuries forced her to be transferred to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Billhimer said.

The woman was treated at Jersey Shore and eventually released, he said.

Investigators learned Santiago-Rojas had assaulted the woman, and a warrant was issued Aug. 23, 2022 for his arrest on a charge of aggravated assault, Billhimer said, but he had fled the area.

Santiago-Rojas’ name was entered in the National Crime Information Center database, which led to North Carolina authorities arresting him on the fugitive warrant in December 2023.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, Major Crime Unit, and High Tech Crime Squad, Point Pleasant Borough Police Department, Ocean County Sheriff’s Office and its Crime Scene Investigation Unit, the U.S. Marshals Service, Belmar Police Department, South River Police Department, and Wilmington, North Carolina, Police Department collaborated on the investigation and arrest.

Patch's Karen Wall contributed to this report.