Woman escapes after being stabbed and raped by a Hanford man she met on dating site

A woman managed to escape an apartment after being stabbed, raped and held against her will by a Hanford man she met through a dating website, police said.

When officers arrived around 9:45 p.m. Monday to the Casa Del Sol Apartments in the 12100 block of Hanford-Armona Road, they spoke with a 911 caller who said a woman came running out of an apartment covered in blood. The woman left the scene in a vehicle.

Officers noticed a bloody trail that led them to an apartment, and inside they found more blood and a bloody knife.

Detectives were then notified that a woman arrived to Kaweah Delta Medical Center after being stabbed at that apartment.

She had knife wounds in her back and in her hand, police said. Her current condition is not known.

The victim told police that she met Jimmy Lee Newman of Hanford through a dating website, but when they met in person on Monday, he stabbed her, sexually assaulted her multiple times and kept her against her will inside his apartment.

Newman, 32, fled his apartment before police arrived.

Police searched two days for Newman until they tracked him down on Wednesday to an apartment on Lynn Street in Armona.

Newman was arrested with assistance from the Kings County Gang Task Force and the Hanford Police Department Problem Oriented Policing Unit. He was booked into Kings County Jail on suspicion of felony rape, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and kidnapping.

This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 8:12 PM.