COLUMBIA, SC (WSPA) – Columbia Police have charged a 21-year-old man with criminal sexual assault first degree and kidnapping in connection with the sexual assault that happened near a dorm house at the University of South Carolina.
The assault occurred Saturday around 3:15 a.m. in the 800 block of Barnwell Street in Columbia. Police report Carlos Jovany Hernandez turned himself in Wednesday morning after his photo was released to local media.
The victim says she was talking to a man she didn’t know near the corner of Barnwell Street and Gibbs Court, which is near the Capstone House dorm, according to USC. The man told the victim he had a weapon and forced her to a nearby area where he sexually assaulted her.
The victim later went to the hospital for treatment.
USC did send out a crime bulletin almost 12 hours after the assault, saying, “An emergency notification was not issued because the information at the time of the report was not specific enough for the community to act on.”
The bulletin described the attacker as a man of unknown race, 5-feet-5 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds and between 20 and 30-years-old.
