OAKLAND — An Oakland resident has been charged with raping a woman as she lay unresponsive and dying in his apartment, and investigators say that when he confirmed her death he dragged her out of the residence, left her body on some stairs and drove to a nearby police station.
Lester Lewis, 75, was charged with a felony count of raping an unconscious person. The woman’s identity has not been released and the cause of her death is still under investigation. Lewis is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail, as police continue to investigate exactly what transpired, court records show.
Police say Lewis filmed the entire crime, and that he couldn’t have known she wasn’t unconscious or dying at the time of the alleged rape. He reportedly burned her legs with a lighter and “aggressively” slapped her, then proceeded to rape her while keeping his camera rolling, authorities said. The woman showed no response to pain and appeared “unconscious or dead” on the video, police said in court records.
The video, obtained through a search of Lewis’ phone, also shows that Lewis signed his own name on the woman’s thigh before the sexual assault, police said.
Lewis allegedly invited the woman to his home on Aug. 31 after offering her drugs and $100 to have sex with him and clean his apartment on the 1300 block of 81st Avenue in Oakland. He claimed that the agreed-upon transaction occurred shortly after they met, police said.
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Once inside, Lewis told police the woman smoked a “white powdery” substance and appeared loopy and distressed, then went unresponsive a short time later. He initially claimed that she left his apartment on her own accord and collapsed once outside, but later admitted to dragging her body to his apartment steps and leaving her there, after realizing she was dead, according to police.
Lewis then drove to a nearby police substation, told police he had kicked the woman out after the two had an argument and that he more or less stumbled upon her dead body outside his home later in the day, authorities said. After further investigation, police arrested Lewis. He has been in jail ever since.
Police say they’re not releasing the woman’s name, pending notification of her family. They say she appeared to be in her 50s.