A man is under arrest in with connection a number of home invasion sexual assaults in Denton, police say.
City officials said officers from the Denton and University of North Texas police departments contacted Earl Leroy Thompson Jr., twice last month while investigating a string of sexual assaults that took place in the area dating back to October 2016.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on May 3, a woman who lived on the 1600 block of W. Oak said she awoke at about 4:30 a.m. to find a large black man in her home. She said the man choked her, covered her head, said he didn't want to hurt her as he attempted to sexually assault her. She said the man did not have an erection and left, taking her phone. The woman told police she had been hearing knocks at her door in early-morning hours, but that no one was there when she looked through the peephole. She said on the night of her attack, she'd accidentally left her door unlocked. Police found a latex glove outside of her residence and kept it as evidence.
Police said the report was similar to two other assault calls, one in October 2016 and another in February 2017, where both victims reported hearing knocking at their door in the early-morning hours and that the man who attacked them had a similar appearance.
The man in the October attack entered through a window, police said, and covered the victim's head during the assault. In the February attack, the man told the woman he didn't want to hurt her, strangled her and took her phone.
On May 4, a 24-year-old woman told police that on April 30 a man parked near her outside her apartment on W. Oak Street and was very close to her as she entered her apartment. She told police the encounter "freaked her out" and that hours later, at about 5:30 a.m., someone was knocking at her door, though she could see no one outside. She said her maintenance man found a pair of latex gloves in the bushes outside her window where her screen had been removed.
On May 9, a woman called police to report a large black man behind her residence on W. Oak Street and in the apartment complex on 1700 W. Hickory Street. She said the man was walking and running from one end to the other.
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Police arrived and found the man, identified as Thompson, who said he was walking from work to his girlfriend's apartment and to a nearby 7-Eleven. When pressed on his story, he admitted he lied because he was scared of police. He was released, though police said he was then placed under surveillance as a possible suspect in the home invasion assaults.
Police said on six occasions, May 18, 19, 28, 29, 30 and 31, they observed Thompson walking around various apartment complexes, sometimes multiple complexes in the same night. On May 29, 30 and 31, he was seen peeping into windows and, according to police, attempting to open windows.
On May 25, Denton police said they were notified by Dallas police that Thompson was a suspect in two sexual assaults of prostitutes in March. On May 26, Thompson was followed to Dallas where Dallas police picked up surveillance and followed him to a club. Police said he later drove Harry Hines Boulevard, but did not engage any prostitutes before returning to Denton after 1 a.m.
Police said he walked around another Denton apartment complex that night before heading home.
On May 31, officers said they observed Thompson unsuccessfully attempting to enter an apartment on Withers Street. During the final night of surveillance, police said Thompson was visibly masturbating as he looked in the window.
Thompson was arrested June 2 and told investigators he'd been involved in three burglaries with the intention of sexually assaulting someone -- the first burglary happened on West Oak Street in February. The second and third burglaries took place in May on West Oak Street and West Hickory Street, according to a police statement.
Thompson is currently facing three charges of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a felony.
The investigations into the cases are ongoing.
