DUBLIN (KRON) — “I’m not OK. I’m pretty shook up.”
A single mother and survivor of domestic violence, Jen said her instincts kicked in late Thursday night in Dublin when she woke up to an intruder in her bed.
“When I turned around, my reaction wasn’t normal,” Jen said. “I was ready to fight or flight.”
In her room, with her dog by her side and her two teenage boys away from home, Jen said a man opened her side gate on Tamarack Drive just before midnight.
The man allegedly walked into her house through the unlocked sliding door in the back.
Dublin police have since identified the suspect as 24-year-old Jatonio Simmons.
“Came into my bed and started putting his hands down the back of my pants, which is when I woke up and I turned around,” Jen said. “When I saw his face, it was so dark, I said, ‘what the are you doing in here?’ and he turned around to run right out. I chased him right out the sliding door, and he was pulling up his pants.”
Jen said her sons have seen Simmons around town, but no one in the family has a real connection to him.
Police believe he randomly chose Jen’s home.
Investigators describe him as a transient, with an extensive criminal history including similar sex crimes in the past.
Jen is convinced she was close to becoming a rape victim.
“I believe he would have, yes. You don’t know.”
Police tracked Simmons down Friday.
An officer spotted him in Mape Memorial Park in Dublin, where he was placed under arrest.
He was charged with sexual assault and residential burglary.
“Just please lock your doors and get cameras, and stay safe — especially in Dublin,” Jen said. “You’d never expect this, and its happening. If it happened to me, like I told people on my social media, could be your mother, your daughter, could be you — next.”
Simmons was booked here at the Santa Rita jail where he’ll remain until he appears in court next week.