Suspected serial rapist faces jury as trial begins

ECTOR COUNTY, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Opening statements and testimony began Tuesday in the jury trial against Javier Arias, an Odessa man accused of kidnapping, raping, or attempting to rape four women in 2022.

Arias faces a total of eight counts across all four cases, including Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Sexual Assault, Sexual Assault, and Attempt to Commit Aggravated Sexual Assault. Prosecutors Kourtney Williams and Meagan Wyatt said that on April 26, 2022, and again on at least three occasions in July of that same year, Arias picked up four homeless or transient women and offered them help in the form of ride, before allegedly driving the women to a secluded road and sexually assaulting or attempting to sexually assault them.

"The most vulnerable p...