GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Miles Cruz was charged with attempted homicide, sexual assault, and other counts for allegedly attacking a woman on a De Pere trail Oct. 5 — with DNA results tying him to the incident.
Cruz, 17, is expected to be in court Thursday afternoon. At previous court appearances, a $1 million cash bond was set, even though his appearances had not been directly tied to this event. Under Wisconsin law, 17-year-olds go through adult court for criminal cases.
According to the criminal complaint, Cruz allegedly put a sweatshirt over the head of a woman walking on the trail, pulling her backwards. The woman says she was fighting to get away, but the assailant squeezed her neck, and at one point she lost consciousness. However, she does remember being sexually assaulted.
The woman was walking on the trail with her son.
“I realized that my baby was no longer in the black wrap that was around me. I don’t remember the baby being removed from me, my shoes or my pants being taken off, or being dragged into the woods. The suspect never said a word to me during this time. The suspect cut off my air again and choked me using both of their hands around my neck as they were sexually assaulting me and I could not breathe. I again let my arms go limp and played dead in hopes that the suspect would stop choking me so I could breathe. I thought I was going to die because I could not take in any air at all. I must have passed out a second time,” the complaint quotes the victim as saying.
Police found Cruz’s backpack in the area, and later found him, as well.
“Cruz indicated that he was walking and saw the officer and got scared so he walked into the woods to try to avoid him. He was asked why he went into the woods and he stated that he is scared of cops. Cruz denied trying to hide from the officer or trying to hide anything in the woods, but did say that he had his hat and blanket with him,” the complaint states. “When Cruz was asked about seeing a woman with a baby on the trail, he denied that he had seen a woman with a baby He said that he did not touch or assault any lady.”
The complaint cites the results of several DNA tests, including a fingernail from the victim with DNA from a male on it.
“The conclusion of the lab is that the result was Very Strong Support for INCLUSION of the defendant, Miles Cruz. The report concluded that it is at least 817 billion times more likely to observe this DNA profile if it is from a mixture of Victim 1, Miles Cruz and an unknown individual, rather than a mixture resulting from Victim 1 and two unknown individuals,” the complaint states.
Also, swabs from Cruz’ sweatshirt showed “very strong support” that it’s the victim’s DNA on the front and on the hood of the items. Samples from his jeans and his fingers also showed a connection to her DNA.
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