Suspect in rape lived
near the victim

An affidavit describes how an
85-year-old woman was attacked
in spite of her pleas

CORRECTION Sunday, April 3, 2005 » The rape of an 85-year-old woman on Waialae Avenue occurred at 3:50 a.m., according to a police affidavit. A story on page A3 of yesterday's newspaper had the wrong time. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

The man charged with raping an 85-year-old woman knew his victim and lived down the street from her, according to a police affidavit and arrest logs.

David Baldaino, 37, lived houses away on the same block of Waialae Avenue. Police yesterday charged Baldaino with first-degree sexual assault, burglary and kidnapping for the March 12 assault after they matched DNA from a blood sample with sperm from the victim.

The affidavit states that on March 12 at 3:50 p.m., an unknown male entered the apartment of the victim, covered her mouth, then attempted to rape her from behind. The affidavit states that during the assault the victim was not able to see her attacker's face because he had turned off the light and kept turning her to one side, away from him.

While the suspect was assaulting the victim, the affidavit states that she told him she was 85 years old and asked, "Why are you doing this to me?" In response the suspect put a pillow on her face and raped her, according to the affidavit.

The victim said that she saw and felt a sharp object -- possibly a pocketknife -- against her while she was being sexually assaulted, the affidavit states. At some point, the suspect stopped and got off of her, telling her "not to move."

The affidavit states that the victim waited for several minutes because she was "terrified" the suspect would come back. But on checking her apartment and finding that he was no longer there, she called police.

The suspect appeared to have entered the apartment by cutting the screen and reaching inside to unlock the kitchen door, according to the affidavit. Police recovered DNA evidence from the scene, including stains on the victim's bedding and nightgown.

On March 16, police began comparing DNA from the scene to DNA profiles collected on the Convicted Offender Data Base. In the process, they discovered that Baldaino was a convicted sex offender who lived in the same area. Baldaino has previous convictions for third-degree sex assault on Kauai, but had failed to update his address, so police arrested him on March 18 for being an unregistered sex offender.

On Tuesday, police had a potential match between the DNA found at the rape scene and Baldaino's DNA profile from the sex offender registry. They confirmed the match by obtaining a search warrant and getting a sample of Baldaino's blood, which on Thursday was found to match DNA found at the rape scene.

Police arrested Baldaino for the rape, burglary and kidnapping later that day at his place of employment, the Punahou Repair Shop. He is currently being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.