Juan Montejo Francisco
Chattanooga Police said an arrest has been made in a home invasion and attempted rape in East Lake.
Juan Montejo Francisco, 27, of 3222 7th Ave., admitted carrying out the Thursday incident and said he paid his rent and electric bill with money taken in the robbery.
Police had responded to a house on E. 36th Street where a woman said through an interpreter that her husband had left for work around 7:30 a.m. She said around 9:30 to 10 a.m. she heard the unlocked front door open and then close.
She said a man opened her bedroom door and approached her with a knife while she was lying in bed. She said he spoke in English while demanding cash. After she told him she did not speak English, he repeated the demand in Spanish.
The woman said the man put a box cutter to her throat and forced her to take money from her wallet. It was $300 in cash.
She said he also forced her to break open her piggy bank, which contained $1,500 cash.
The woman said the man then put the knife in his pocket and told her to get on the bed. She said he began to pull on her shirt and skirt, trying to pull them off. She said she managed to get up on the bed and to jump out the bedroom window.
She said the man ran out the front door and got into a small to mid-size white vehicle with possible dark wheels. He drove off towards Rossville Boulevard.
A detective who was given a video of the vehicle spotted it that afternoon and stopped it. Francisco, who was driving it, was then taken to the Police Services Center for questioning.