CdA man held in rapes
Police arrested a 33-year-old Coeur d’Alene man on suspicion of raping at least four women in their homes in Kootenai County in 2003.
Paul E. Hawkins also is a suspect in three other rapes that year, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Wendy Carpenter said.
Hawkins was arrested about 2 p.m. Friday, nearly three weeks after police received a tip from a confidential informant.
“This is a great day for the citizens of Coeur d’Alene and the surrounding area to have this man behind bars,” Carpenter said.
The four rapes for which Hawkins will be charged were linked more than two years ago by DNA evidence. Police would not say Friday whether DNA taken from the victims matches Hawkins’.
The rapes include the April 16, 2003, attack on a woman in Coeur d’Alene’s Heartland subdivision and three others later that year: Aug. 16 in Rathdrum, Nov. 8 in Spirit Lake and Nov. 25 in the 1400 block of East Coeur d’Alene Avenue.
The other rapes in which Hawkins is a suspect include two attacks in Coeur d’Alene and one in Post Falls. Police earlier said DNA tests of evidence from those attacks was “inconclusive,” but the characteristics of the crimes led them to believe the attacker was the same in all seven cases.
According to police, Hawkins moved frequently during the time of the attacks and lived within a few miles of each victim at the time they were raped. In the past three years he has had addresses in Hauser Lake, Spirit Lake, Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Spokane, court records show.
Hawkins most recently lived at the Star Motel on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, court records show. He has three drunken driving convictions in Kootenai County and is on supervised probation.
At the time of his third DUI arrest in November 2004, his blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit. He told the arresting officer he was on medication for bipolar disorder. He also told police that he was a disabled veteran and in poor health.
Court records show Hawkins has at least four children, including one born days after the April 16 rape. Another was born in 2004.
In that April 16, 2003, rape, the 40-year-old victim told Coeur d’Alene police she was in bed about 1 a.m. when she heard the inside door to her garage open. She tried to call 911 but the line was dead, and police said later it had been cut.
The woman went downstairs to get her cell phone when a man grabbed her by the head, beat her and sexually assaulted her. Two small children were in the house at the time, police said.
In a rape on Nov. 8, 2003, the 82-year-old victim was asleep at her house in the 1500 block of Lakeside Avenue.
At Friday afternoon’s press conference, Carpenter said Hawkins was arrested at his workplace but gave no details.
He is to appear in court Monday .
Though police took DNA samples from several possible suspects throughout the course of the serial rape investigation, they said Hawkins wasn’t on the radar until the informant came to police on June 1.