Phoenix man charged with robbing couple, sexually assaulting woman

A man accused of robbing a woman and her boyfriend at a Phoenix bus stop before sexually assaulting her at gunpoint was found and arrested a week later, according to police.

The couple was at a bus stop near McDowell Road and 28th Street on Aug. 1 at around 4:25 a.m. when they were approached by a man who was later identified as 30-year-old Kenneth Smith, who demanded money from the couple, according to court documents.

The woman gave Smith the $1 she had, and the boyfriend showed he had no money in his wallet but offered a card for a group that helps homeless people, documents said.

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Smith briefly looked at the card before ordering the woman to a nearby parking lot where he demanded she disrobe and perform various sexual acts on him at gunpoint, according to court documents.

After several minutes, the woman's boyfriend ran over to the parking lot and announced he had called 911 and police were on their way. Smith walked toward the boyfriend and demanded the cell phone, but the boyfriend threw the phone toward some bushes to prevent Smith from taking it, documents added.

Smith then fled west on McDowell Road before officers arrived, records said.

Police obtained surveillance footage that captured the incident and found footage from multiple businesses — including a nearby Circle K one day before the incident — that captured an individual who closely resembled Smith, documents said.

Smith purchased a drink from a self-checkout kiosk at the Circle K and entered his loyalty rewards number, which was linked to a phone number belonging to Smith, documents added.

Officers responded to Smith's apartment near McDowell Road and 36th Street — roughly one and a half miles east of the bus stop — and arrested him without incident on Aug. 8, documents said.

Smith denied being in the area at the time of the incident and was booked into jail on two counts of sexual assault, armed robbery and aggravated assault along with one count of kidnapping. He's being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond, according to court documents.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix man charged with robbing couple, sexually assaulting woman