Full Notification

Peter Lino Parra, age 35, of Santa Barbara was arrested for the crime of rape involving a victim too intoxicated to resist.  The incident occurred in the early morning hours of June 8, 2012 and remained unsolved until April 2013 when Parra was identified through DNA analysis conducted by the California Department of Justice.

On June 8, 2012 at 1:00 p.m., Santa Barbara Police Department Officer Andrew Freytag responded to a call of a rape investigation at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.  There he met the victim, a 21-year old woman who is a UCSB student.  Officer Freytag was assisted by Officer John Bacon who conducted CSI.

Their investigation revealed the following.  At approximately 10:00 p.m. on June 7, 2012, the victim started drinking with friends at her residence near UCSB.  They then went to Tonic Nightclub at 634 State Street in downtown Santa Barbara where the victim continued to drink heavily.  Ultimately, the victim was asked by nightclub staff to leave the premise due to her level of intoxication.  The victim’s friends arranged for another mutual friend to respond downtown and take the victim home.  As the victim was waiting for her ride, alone on a bench outside of the nightclub, she was contacted by the suspect who led her into a nearby car that was being driven by another man.  The victim was driven to the suspect’s residence on the 1500 block of San Andres Street where she was raped, and then driven to Isla Vista where she was dropped off.  The victim walked home and later that morning went to the hospital.

Officers Freytag and Bacon completed their rape investigation which included a forensic medical examination of the victim.  Evidence collected in the examination was sent to the California Department of Justice Crime Lab for analysis.  The victim was put in contact with an advocate from the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, and the case was assigned to Sergeant Bryan Jensen for further investigation.  At the time Sergeant Jensen was working as a detective in the SBPD Crimes Against Persons Unit.  Sergeant Jensen ultimately exhausted all investigative leads and the case was placed on inactive status, unsolved, pending any results from the DOJ Crime Lab.

On April 24, 2013 the SBPD Crimes Against Persons Unit was notified by the California Department of Justice that a foreign DNA sample had been found amongst the evidence collected during the forensic medical examination in this case.  Furthermore, the foreign DNA matched the DNA profile of a subject in CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System.  That subject was Peter Lino Parra. 

With a fresh investigative lead the case was reactivated and assigned to SBPD Crimes Against Persons Detective Charlie Katsapis further investigation.  On the morning of May 14, 2013 Detective Katsapis obtained a $100,000.00 felony arrest warrant for Parra for the crime of rape involving a victim too intoxicated to resist.  At 1:00 p.m. he and other detectives located Parra at his residence and took him into custody.  Parra was interviewed at the Santa Barbara Police Department and he initially denied ever having any contact with the victim.  However, upon being confronted with the DNA evidence indicating the contrary, Parra acknowledged that he had been with the victim at the time of the incident and admitted to having sex with her and then dropping her off in Isla Vista.  He stated, though, that the sex was consensual.

Parra was booked at Santa Barbara County Jail for rape with a bail amount of $100,000.00.