ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — Editor's note: The story below includes details about a sexual assault that readers might find disturbing.
The man arrested after a sexual assault at gunpoint in January was linked by DNA to two more sexual assaults, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
Hilton Acker, 32, was arrested June 9 related to the Jan. 7 assault, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office (ACSO). The victim said she was driving on South Alton Street between East Mississippi Avenue and East Florida Avenue, which is near Aurora, when she was flagged down by a man she did not know.
She reported to police that the man was waving and holding a cup of coffee. She pulled over, and the man began knocking on the passenger side window, the affidavit says. She rolled down the window, and when she did, the man pointed a gun at her.
He told her to open the door, which she said she did out of fear for her safety. She said he ordered her to drive, and after about five minutes, they ended up in alley, where the victim reported that he man forced her to perform a sex act on him at gunpoint.
Afterward, she reported, according to the affidavit, that the man got into the front seat and drove them around for about 30 minutes before stopping in an area with a lot trucks.
Once there, she reported, that the man raped her in the back seat. She reported they drove to a neighborhood where the man stole her phone and ran from the vehicle, the affidavit says.
She said she drove out of the neighborhood to find a gas station to ask for directions because she did not know where she was and arrived home about 5 a.m.
Investigators later spoke with the victim's partner, who said he was working as a bartender until about 3:30 a.m. He reported that the victim had stopped texting him around 2:30 a.m. and was crying when she got home and immediately went to take a shower.
When she got out, she told him what happened, the affidavit says. The man used the find-my-phone feature and located the victim's phone in Green Valley Ranch. The victim was later able to identify a business on East 34th Drive as the location where she was assaulted. She also recognized the gas station where she asked for directions after driving through the area again, the affidavit says.
A DNA swab taken from the back seat of the woman's vehicle matched Acker, the affidavit says. His DNA also linked him to two other cases.
They included:
- 2007 sex assault in Denver
- 2022 robbery/sexual assault in Lakewood
According to the affidavit, the 2007 case involved a juvenile victim and the case was dismissed after the victim's family refused to cooperate due to safety concerns.
In that assault, the victim said the suspect forced her to perform a sex act on him in the back seat of a vehicle, according to the document.
In the Lakewood case, the victim reported that she was driven around by the suspect before she said the suspect placed a gun to her head and forced her to perform a sex act, the affidavit says. A spokesman for the Lakewood Police Department said there is still an "open and active" investigation related to the assault. So far, no charges have been filed.
Court records show Acker was arrested on pimping charges in 2017 in Arapahoe County and he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to three years in jail.
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