CA- Man arrested at Murrieta hospital on rape charges

6-6-2009 California:

A man was arrested in a hospital emergency room where he had gone for treatment about an hour after a woman he allegedly raped bit off his tongue, police said.

Murrieta police were summoned to the apartment in the 24000 block of Hancock Avenue around 10:23 a.m. There they found a woman with injuries consistent with a violent assault, according to a police news release.

Officers found a severed tongue at the scene. Around 11 a.m., the suspect, 32-year-old Ronald McGowan, of West Covina, arrived at the Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, police said.

Police confirmed the suspect's identity and took him into custody. Doctors were unable to reattach the tongue, police said.

A registered sex offender with a previous rape conviction, McGowan specifically targeted the victim, police said.

McGowan was slated to be booked into Southwest Detention Center in French Valley on Friday evening on charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping with intent to rape, said Lt. Dennis Vrooman, a Murrieta police spokesman. ..Source.. by JEFF HORSEMAN, The Press-Enterprise