A Charlestown man is being held without bail as he faces charges in the aggravated rape and kidnapping of a woman.
A man accused of holding a 23-year-old woman against her will and sexually assaulting her in his home in January was indicted Thursday on one count of kidnapping and 10 counts of aggravated rape.
Victor Pena, 38, of Charlestown, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury, which moves his case from municipal to superior court, according to prosecutors. The district attorney's office said he is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges on March 20. He was previously charged only with kidnapping in connection to the case.
He had originally been scheduled to appear in municipal court on Friday, but that appearance has now been canceled.
Pena has been held without bail since his arrest on Jan. 22 in connection to the disappearance of a woman who was last seen leaving a bar three days earlier in Boston. She was found in Pena's apartment after authorities established a timeline with the help of surveillance videos and traced a digital trail she left behind.
Pena's family has defended his actions and said he "didn't do it."
"Only thing he said is, he said 'She was drunk, she asked me for help, I helped walk her, I went to my place, and I didn’t even touch this girl,'" Jose Pena told NBC10 Boston back in January. He also said he doesn't believe his brother is competent to stand trial.
Police said surveillance video helped them establish a timeline from the night the woman went missing, from the moment she left Hennessy’s Bar to when she got on the MBTA with Pena. The pair was then seen again on surveillance in Charlestown, leading police to the building and unit where the woman and Pena were.
But Jose Pena has said he believes it was all a misunderstanding.
"My brother is slow," he said in January. "He's 38 but mentally he's 17, 18, so he's like a teenager."
