DA: Prowler Broke in, Rubbed Sleeping Girl's Back

Dwayne Farrell pleaded not guilty to five charges against him

The man accused of sneaking into two little girls’ rooms in San Marcos has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

At an arraignment Thursday, a judge called Dwayne Farrell, 23, an extreme danger to the community and ordered he be held on a $1 million bail.

Farrell is suspected of breaking into two units at the Terra Cotta Apartments in the 500 block of Rush Drive on Sunday morning.

In the first incident, Deputy District Attorney Ryan Saunders said Farrell sneaked in through an unlocked sliding glass door and went into a room where an 7-year-old girl was sleeping in her bed near her 3-year-old sister’s crib.

“He was kneeling down next to her bed, rubbing her back under her covers but on top of her shirt,” said Saunders.

Thinking the man was her father, the girl noticed he may have been filming her with his phone’s camera. However, when she pulled on his beanie, she realized he was a stranger. Farrell quickly fled after that, according to Saunders.

The second incident took place just 25 minutes later. Saunders said Farrell got into a second-story unit through another unlocked sliding door and walked into a bedroom where a mother and her 8-year-old daughter were sleeping on two twin beds.

The 8-year-old awoke to find a strange man asleep on the floor beside her bed. She woke up her mother, and the woman chased the man out the room.

Farrell ran to the balcony, jumped off and hit his head on the ground, causing it to bleed, Saunders said.

That blood – later recovered by San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies – helped them identify Farrell as their suspect.

Investigators compared the blood’s DNA to the DNA in their lab’s system. Within a day, they had a positive match.

Farrell had a previous felony conviction for attempted burglary in 2012, as well as two misdemeanor charges for peeping and resisting an officer, which is why he was in the system.

Deputies arrested Farrell on Monday outside his home.

On Farrell’s confiscated phone, detectives discovered downloaded images of sleeping, nude teenage girls, according to Saunders.

“Again, these were images that were sexual in nature, and the titles of the images were things such as ‘nude sleeping girls,’ ‘sleeping teens,’ things of that nature,” said Saunders.

Farrell was charged Monday with two counts of residential burglary, two counts of annoying or molesting a minor and one count of lewd conduct on a minor. The last count stems from allegations that he rubbed the 7-year-old girl’s back.

“Considering the fact that he went into a bedroom where a parent was also sleeping with one of these girls, you know, the bold nature of these acts is extremely frightening,” said Saunders.

If convicted on all charges, Farrell faces up to 11 years and 4 months in prison. 

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