Crime

Police: Woman, Kids Were Held Captive By Rapist

(WCCO) A Chicago man has been charged with holding a south Minneapolis woman against her will for five days and repeatedly raping her. Forty-one-year-old Daniel Thomas faces three felony counts, including sexual assault in the first degree. Police said the woman's four children were also kept in the home while she was assaulted.

The criminal complaint states that Thomas's ex-girlfriend initially allowed him to stay at her home while he was in Minneapolis for a court appearance. When she asked him to leave on July 4, he refused. Police said he then told the woman that "no one was going to be leaving the house alive."

The complaint says that for the next five days he raped the woman while her four children, all under the age of five, were also locked in the house. Thomas allowed the woman to leave a couple of times, but kept her children with him so she would return.

On Tuesday the woman got away and called police, but Thomas was no where to be found, at least for a while.

"This was pretty unusual in the fact that he did it once. She called police, he was able to evade the police, and he came back and did it again," said Sgt. Jesse Garcia of the Minneapolis Police Department.

The next day the woman returned to her south Minneapolis home with her children and the father of her children. When he left for work, Thomas came back.

"The kids were present, the kids were home, and what he did was he put the kids in a room and used a TV to block the door so they couldn't get out," said Garcia.

Police said he then "cut the woman with a kitchen knife causing a gaping slash to the forearm that was to the bone."

He wrapped her arm in a towel and then raped her once more. According to the criminal complaint, on Thursday morning the woman finally convinced Thomas that she would go with him back to Chicago. When he went to the bus station that morning, she ran to a nearby phone and called police and they arrested him.

"This was pretty calculated. This guy knew what he was doing, knew what he wanted, and he was going to take any route to get there," said Garcia.

The woman was treated at Hennepin County Medical Center for serious, but non life-threatening injuries. If convicted of first degree criminal sexual conduct, Thomas could face up to 30 years in prison. He also faces a burglary charge in this case. The woman's children were unharmed.

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