Berryville man facing rape, incest charges

 Padilla

By Scott Loftis

A Berryville man is being held in the Carroll County Detention Center on felony charges after he allegedly fathered a child, who later died, by an underage family member.

Jose Padilla, 47, was booked into the detention center on Oct. 3, according to the jail’s intake log. He is charged with rape and incest, both felonies. Padilla is being held on a $500,000 bond and has been ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim.

According to a probab le-cause affidavit written by Sgt. Cody Boren of the Berryville Police Dep artment, Boren met with the alleged victim on Dec. 27, 2023. The alleged victim told Boren that she was 10 weeks and six days along in her pregnancy and that Padilla had raped her and fathered the child, the affidavit says.

After consulting with Lt. Daniel Crawford, the affidavit says, Berryville police decided not to interview Padilla but to maintain contact with the alleged victim and obtain a DNA sample from the child after its birth, according to the affidavit. The alleged victim agreed with the chosen course of action, the affidavit says.

On Jan. 23, 2024, Boren received a telephone call from the alleged victim’s sister, who told him that the alleged victim had cognitive disabilities stemming from childhood brain tumors, according to the affidavit. The sister said Padilla had sexually assaulted her for several years and had been arrested in 2019, the affidavit says. The sister said she also was aware of another relative who she said also had been sexually assaulted by Padilla, according to the affidavit.

On July 16, the alleged victim contacted Boren and told him she had given birth to a daughter on July 8, the affidavit says. On July 23, Boren obtained DNA swabs from the alleged victim and her daughter, according to the affidavit.

One week later, on July 23, Berryville officers served a search warrant on Padilla, who allowed them to take DNA swabs from his left and right cheeks, the affidavit says.

On Aug. 28, Berryville officers were dispatched to the emergency room of Mercy hospital in Berryville in reference to a deceased baby, according to the affidavit. Crawford arrived to discover that the baby was the daughter of Padilla’s alleged victim, the affidavit says, adding that the child’s body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy.

On Sept. 24, the affidavit says, Boren received results of the DNA comparison from the crime lab. The results indicated that the probability of Padilla being the child’s father is 99.99 percent, according to the affidavit.

“It is also noted that the DNA profile obtained from (the child) is 1.727 billion times more likely to have originated from a biological child of JP, Jose Padilla, and (the alleged victim) than from a random Caucasian individual, 168.5 billion times more likely than from a random African-American individual, 57.740 million times more likely than from a random Hispanic individual, and 36.790 million times more likely than from a random Asian individual,” the affidavit quotes the results of the DNA comparison as saying.

Padilla is scheduled to appear in Carroll County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 4, in Berryville.