Marine faces charged in abduction, rape of N. Virginia woman

A US Marine has been charged with the rape of two Ballston, VA women who he followed home and assaulted at around 4AM on February 27, 2010. 21 year old Jorge "George" Torrez was charged with acts relating to the gunpoint rape and abduction of two women after they returned home from a meal. According to authorities, after Torrez forced them inside of their house, one of the women called 911 and hung up, leading him to flee with the other woman.

4 hours later, that woman was found in Prince William County VA, close to the edge of Marine Corps Base Quantico. Torrez was stationed in Ft. Myer, near the area of the attack. She had been raped, beaten and choked to within inches of her life before being dumped in the woods. Authorities arrested him within hours of the attack.

Arlington police on Friday [June 25] announced that they have charged Torrez with 14 criminal counts related to the North Wakefield Street attack, including abduction, rape, forcible sodomy, robbery, burglary with intent to commit sexual assault and use of a firearm during a felony.

Torrez was already in jail for a second attack which took place February 10, 2010, when he allegedly attempted to abduct a woman at gunpoint near a local high school, but settled for simply grabbing her purse. That attack led to a composite sketch which led to Torrez.

Arlington County spokeswoman Crystal Nosal, a detective, said "If these two cases are connected, there's obviously a clear escalation within two weeks. Two weeks ago the woman convinced him not to take her, and then he confronts two women and leaves one for dead in Prince William County."

Torrez, who joined the Marine Corps at 18 immediately after graduating from high school in Zion, Ill., served in Okinawa, Japan, for two years before moving to Northern Virginia last year, according to his family. He had a lifelong ambition to join the military, an ambition that solidified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, his sister said.

Sara Torrez said her brother has been working at the Pentagon and seemed to be enjoying it, their discussions centering on whether he wanted to continue with a career in the Marine Corps or to leave, go to school and return to Illinois.

Torrez is being held in the Arlington County Jail without bond. His next court appearance was scheduled for July 26, but may be sooner in Prince William County officials file their own charges. Prosecutors are considering bringing attempted capital murder charges against Torrez because it appears that parts of the attack occurred in their jurisdiction and the attack included rape.