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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A convicted sex offender is accused of raping a woman at the Mall of America light rail station last month just two days after being released from jail after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend in south Minneapolis.
Kendell Rodney Jones, 39, of Minneapolis, is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and misdemeanor counts of domestic assault in connection to the two incidents, court documents filed in Hennepin County show.
According to the criminal complaints, Jones assaulted his girlfriend on the morning of Jan. 13 at the 46th Street bus station along Interstate 35. The victim told officers that Jones assaulted her during an argument, throwing her to the ground and punching her. Police arrested Jones and he was booked into jail later that morning.
Jones was released from jail on Jan. 19, records show.
Two days later, a woman reported that Jones raped her at the Mall of America light rail station in Bloomington, the complaints say. She told investigators that Jones had offered her drugs in the bathroom and forced her to have sex in exchange, even though she repeatedly told him she didn’t want to. Jones only stopped when a security guard walked into the bathroom.
When the woman got on a train moments later, Jones followed her and berated her, yelling: “You wanted the shot, but you didn’t want to do the job.” Repeatedly, he told her to get off the train with him. She offered to give him her phone if he left her alone, but Jones wanted cash instead. The interaction was captured on surveillance video, investigators say.
The woman and Jones both got off at the Lake Street platform in Minneapolis, where the woman was able to get away. She immediately went to the police station to report the assault. A medical examination later found that she had suffered multiple bruises on her shoulder, chest and highs.
Police arrested Jones on the light rail last Thursday. In an interview with police, he said that he gave the woman drugs under a mutual understanding that they’d have sex. “I was just trying to get my rocks off and that’s that,” he said, according to investigators. He also mentioned that he’d recently been released from prison after serving 15 years for a sex offence.
Jones was convicted in Louisiana in a rape and murder case. According to authorities, Jones and an accomplice were hired to kill a man, but when he wasn’t home, they killed his wife and raped his daughter instead. As a result, Jones is required to register as a sex offender.
If convicted of the rape charge in Minnesota, Jones faces another 15 years in prison.
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