King County prosecutors say a 46-year-old West Seattle man became fixated on his neighbor and broke into her apartment, where he bound her to her bed and raped her for hours at knifepoint.
Sonny Borja, who has a lengthy criminal history, was charged Friday with first-degree rape and first-degree burglary. He remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 4.
"The defendant's history of violence, and in particular violence towards women, is shocking and extensive," Senior Deputy Prosecutor Rhyan Anderson wrote in charging papers, which enumerate Borja's past convictions in Thurston and Pierce counties, including a 2014 rape charge that was reduced to third-degree assault as a result of plea negotiations.
Borja was also convicted of second-degree assault for beating his girlfriend unconscious in 2010 and has convictions for domestic-violence misdemeanor assaults and harassment, custodial assault, second-degree robbery and violating domestic-violence no-contact orders, charging papers say.
A 38-year-old woman, who lives alone in the Delridge neighborhood, told Seattle police detectives a man approached her outside her apartment building in early July to ask for help jumping his dead car battery, according to the charges.
She agreed, but the man's car started without needing a jump, which she found odd but apparently chalked up to the man appearing to be high on drugs, the charges say.
A few days later, on July 10, the same man knocked on the woman's door. He introduced himself as "Sonny," told her he lived in the apartment building next to hers and gave her his phone number, asking her to contact him if she saw anyone messing with his vehicle, charging papers say. She told police he again appeared to be high on drugs.
Then, three days later, the man followed the woman to a nearby park, where he worked out 30 feet away from the spot where she was sunbathing, the charges say. He approached her at one point, told her he was from Olympia and rambled about his life before eventually walking away.
The woman went back to her apartment and fell asleep about 12:30 a.m. on July 14, the charges say. She later told police she hadn't been asleep long when she felt something sharp on her leg and awoke to find a man with a kitchen knife standing next to her bed, according to the charges.
When she screamed, the man clamped a hand over her mouth, threatened to kill her if she didn't comply, tied her hands to the bed with nylon rope and forced her to smoke methamphetamine before repeatedly raping her, charging papers say.
She told police her assailant wore a mask and a sweatshirt with a hood pulled tight around his face, showing only his eyes, the charges say.
Although he tried to disguise his voice by speaking with a fake Scottish accent, the woman recognized the man's voice as her neighbor's, according to the charges.
The man left her house about 5:30 a.m., the charges say. She underwent a sexual-assault examination at a hospital that morning and met detectives at her apartment later in the day. The detectives found a crowbar outside a front window, charging papers say.
The woman later identified Borja from a police photo montage, according to the charges.
Seattle police arrested Borja on July 20 and searched his apartment, where they found kitchen knives and a lighter consistent with descriptions of items used in the attack, the charges say.
