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The Baltimore Sun reported earlier today that federal authorities are alleging that an Uber driver sexually abused a woman roughly two months after Baltimore Police had sought the 29-year-old for questioning in a separate homicide investigation. A city police spokesperson said detectives have since spoken with Javon Orane Minott, who was being sought “for questioning only” in connection with the Aug. 18 shooting. U.S. Park Police filed federal charges last week after responding on Nov. 17 to a 911 call from a woman who reported she had been sexually assaulted at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
Prince George’s County Police found the woman wearing a coat but no shirt or bra and described her as incoherent and going in and out of consciousness to a degree they considered life threatening. At the hospital, she told officers she had ordered an Uber from Washington to her mother’s home in Bowie after purchasing heroin, which she said she used a small amount of before entering the vehicle.
According to an affidavit, the woman said she realized the driver was going the wrong direction after looking up from her phone. When she asked where they were, she reported that the driver repeatedly told her, “You’re so beautiful,” and asked her to take her shirt off. She said she told him to stop, but he persisted, then turned off the road behind a building where he sexually assaulted her.
The woman called her mother during the assault, and authorities say the driver sped away when he heard her reading his license plate number. Investigators identified Minott using the ride-hailing app and his vehicle registration. Park Police arrested him later in the week after stopping him in District Heights. Minott told investigators he had consensual sexual contact with the woman and claimed she had “requested an additional ride” to the location where she was found.
Minott was federally charged with sexual aassault, an offense carrying a potential life sentence. His defense team agreed in court that he would remain in custody. Federal public defenders did not return requests for comment.
Baltimore Police have not clarified Minott’s connection to the Westport killing of Wilson Marroquin Caceros, 29. Officers responded to the scene on Aug. 18 and found Caceros unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene. A Sept. 5 bulletin stated Minott was originally from Prince George’s County but was believed to be living in his Jeep, which had been spotted in Federal Hill, Prince George’s County and Northeast Washington.
