Columbia police make arrest in USC sexual assault case

Columbia police have charged a man with sexual assault after a University of South Carolina student reported that she was raped near the college’s Campus early Saturday morning.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said 21-year-old Carlos Jovany Hernandez, of West Columbia, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct after he turned himself in to law enforcement Wednesday morning.

On Jan. 30, Columbia police officials said a woman was reported to have been sexually assualted between 3:15 and 3:30 a.m. The woman told police a man, who was later identified as Hernandez, said he had a weapon and forced her to go to the 800 block of Barnwell Street where he assaulted her.

The woman told police she may have briefly talked to the suspect in an apartment complex hallway before he attacked her, officials said.

After the assault, the victim walked to her apartment where her roommate called 9-1-1 and sought treatment at a local hospital, the police said.

Shortly after the reported raped, Columbia police issued a surveillance footage photograph depicting the alleged suspect.

Holbrook said following the release of the photograph, Hernandez turned himself in to the Columbia Police Department.