Prosecutors: Man released from jail the day prior broke into home, touched sleeping girl

AUBURN, Wash. — A 35-year-old Auburn man was charged in King County Superior Court with first-degree burglary for allegedly breaking into a home, and police say he touched a sleeping girl.

In charging documents, prosecutors said Dejuan Marquis Roberts broke into the home around 1 a.m. on August 22.

Police said a 17-year-old girl reported seeing Roberts enter her bedroom through a window and said he crawled into bed and touched her shoulders and legs.

The girl then screamed out for help and hid with her mother and younger sister in her mother's bedroom, police said.

As officers responded, the girl reported that someone was knocking on her mother's door yelling "open up" before leaving out the back door of the home, according to a probable cause document.

When police arrived at the scene, they said both the girl and her mother were "hysterical" and "distraught."

Police said they were initially unable to find a suspect but later discovered that a phone belonging to the 17-year-old's younger sister was stolen.

Around 2 a.m., police said they found Roberts, who fit the suspect's description, at the Auburn Sounder Station.

Police said Roberts was initially reluctant to speak and they noticed he had a phone case in his back pocket and a phone in a colorful Mikey Mouse phone wallet.

The officers at the Auburn Sounder Station then had police at the crime scene call the stolen phone.

Police said the phone in Roberts' back pocket immediately began to ring and they took him into custody.

The 17-year-old later positively identified Roberts as the man who entered her room and Roberts was booked into jail where he remains in lieu of $50,000 bail.

In charging documents, prosecutors noted that Roberts had an extensive criminal history, including convictions for possession of a weapon in a correctional facility, custodial assault, and robbery, among others.

In a probable cause document, police said Roberts had been released from jail the day before on suspicion of criminal trespass and had taken a bus from Des Moines to Auburn in the afternoon.

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