Man Who Raped Princeton Woman While She Slept Is Sentenced

PRINCETON, NJ — A man who previously admitted to raping a woman while she slept in her home on Birch Avenue last year has been sentenced to seven years in state prison for the sexual assault and five years for a burglary on the same street.

Pedro Arias-Santiago will serve those sentences concurrently, according to the Princeton Packet. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also has a detainer for Arias-Santiago, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who has been living in Princeton for five years.

Arias-Santiago admitted that he broke into a home on Birch Avenue on June 29, 2016, and sexually assaulted a woman while she slept.

The woman woke up, escaped her home and called police. Arias-Santiago was arrested outside the woman’s home in that incident.

Following the arrest, police learned that he also entered a home on the 200 block of Birch Avenue through an unlocked door at about 5 a.m. on June 14, 2016.

A 19-year-old Illinois resident who was staying at the home heard a noise and confronted Arias-Santiago, who then left.

The attached image of Pedro Arias-Santiago was previously provided by Princeton Police