On April 24 at 4 p.m., a sexual battery occurred at Cunningham North Path near Cunningham 2 parking lot. Later that evening, students and faculty were issued a Mustang alert.
Robert Andrew Marquez, 29, was arrested on April 25 by State Parole and was transported to San Joaquin County Jail by campus police after allegedly touching the buttocks of a female.
The female victim reported at 4:32 p.m. on April 24, the suspect started a conversation with her. The victim continued to walk toward her car in the parking lot and stopped talking to the suspect but he continued to follow her. The suspect stumbled and touched the victim’s buttocks with his hand.
“30 minutes is enough time for somebody to hop in a car and get way away from here or even walking, get to an area where we’ll never be able to find them,” Police Sergeant and Public Information Officer Jim Bock said, noting how State Parole saw the alert and was able to provide a name and an interview for the suspect.
“In this case, it just shows a great partnership with State Parole.”
In 2019, Marquez was convicted of an assault with an intent to commit a specified sex offense and was released in 2021.
The victim is not seeking prosecution, instead, she wanted to make others aware of the incident according to Bock.
We were able to make the entire campus community aware of it through our alert,” Bock said, noting how campus police are looking to the District Attorney’s office to find charges.
Marquez is currently in San Joaquin County Jail with no bail after a parole officer decided to revoke his parole leaving him booked into custody according to Bock.
“I just want to thank the victim for coming forward, because a lot of times in a situation like this when somebody is victimized they’re embarrassed and they would rather just have the situation go away,” Bock said.
“She took the brave step of coming forward.”