San Ramon man arrested after DNA evidence connects him to 2014 rape

Bay City News
Sunday, February 14, 2016

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- Police from the University of California at Santa Barbara arrested a 21-year-old San Ramon man Wednesday in connection with a 2014 on-campus sexual assault.

Daniel Jiang Chen was arrested on suspicion of rape, false imprisonment and battery with a serious bodily injury, according to police.

Chen, who was enrolled at the school from 2012 to 2013, allegedly sexually assaulted a woman during the early morning hours of Feb. 23, 2014, police said.

After the victim reported the incident, police and Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputies recovered physical evidence from the crime scene, but at the time were unable to make an arrest.

When Chen was arrested in Alameda County for an unrelated incident last month, his DNA was put into an FBI database and matched the evidence from the 2014 assault case, according to police.

Chen has been booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail, police said.