LOS ANGELES—A 41-year-old man has been charged with breaking into a University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) student housing apartment unit occupied by two female exchange students and sexually assaulting one of them, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced July 10.
Jeffery Stott Brewer Jr. pleaded not guilty July 9 to one count each of sexual penetration by use of force and first-degree residential burglary with person present, along with an allegation that he committed the sexual assault during the commission of a burglary, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities believe Mr. Brewer entered the room at about 2:40 a.m. July 5 at Saxon Residential Suites in the 300 block of De Neve Drive, east of Veteran Avenue and north of Gayley Avenue. He allegedly sexually assaulted the victim while she was in bed, according to a statement from the UCLA Police Department.
He had allegedly loitered outside the same student housing building just over an hour earlier before entering one of the residences, according to the D.A.’s Office. He allegedly knocked on one of the apartment doors, entered when a student opened the door, and then departed when two students asked him to leave, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Mr. Brewer was arrested at 9:44 p.m. July 5 by the UCLA Police Department, and remains behind bars in lieu of $1.15 million bail, jail records show.
He is due back at the Airport Courthouse in Los Angeles Aug. 13. A date is scheduled to be set then for a hearing to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against him to proceed to trial.
If convicted as charged, he could face a maximum of 31 years to life in state prison, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
In a statement announcing the charges, District Attorney George Gascón said, “The brutal and violent sexual assault experienced by this survivor at the hands of the alleged suspect is profoundly disturbing and will not be tolerated.”
