Police are investigating whether a 26-year-old homeless man already charged in two sexual assaults at a housing complex on Kauai is the suspect in a third that occurred around the same time early Sunday.
Jesse Korn was charged Wednesday with 10 counts of first-degree sexual assault; four counts of first-degree attempted sexual assault; one count of kidnapping; third-degree assault; first-degree terroristic threatening; and three counts of first-degree burglary in the two cases.
Korn pleaded not guilty at Kauai District Court Thursday, according to Kauai County Prosecutor Justin Kollar. His preliminary hearing is set for Monday. He remained in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Police said that early Sunday morning a man entered a unit at the Kawailehua public housing complex on Paanau Road and sexually assaulted the first victim. As police were investigating, they received another call of a sex assault in a unit in another building. “He held her against her will for over two hours,” said Assistant Chief Bryson Ponce of the Kauai Police Department’s Investigative Services Bureau.
Ponce said the victims, who identified Korn as their assailant, did not know him but have seen him around the complex, where his relatives live.
When police responded to the second assault,
patrol officers spotted Korn behind the second victim’s building. Police went after him, but Korn hopped a fence and got away, Ponce said. Police later learned Korn had allegedly jumped from the victim’s second-story window as officers were already scouring the grounds investigating the first assault. Dozens of officers launched a manhunt from Kekaha to Kapaa, including by helicopter.
Korn was arrested Monday night at Kawailehua after officers were informed that he wanted to turn himself in.
Ponce said the sexual assault of a third victim early Sunday at the housing complex is being investigated,
although Korn has not been arrested or charged in that case.
“The incidents happened after midnight. It was one after the other after the other,” Ponce said.
Korn has a criminal record of misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member, criminal contempt, assault, driving under the influence of an intoxicant and driving without a license.
