Rape Suspect Makes Court Appearance

BROOKINGS, SD - People across Brookings are breathing a sigh of relief because police say a serial rapist is behind bars.

The 21-year-old suspect wasn't a college student, but lived just blocks from South Dakota State University and that's where police made an arrest.

While people may be feeling safer knowing that there is an arrest, Police Chief Jeff Miller says people shouldn't let their guards down.

Police arrested 21-year old Chris Jones just before 11 p.m. Tuesday. He'd been questioned in the case before, and investigators say he later admitted to the crimes. He wasn't a student at South Dakota State University, where the first two sexual assaults occurred. But his mobile home is just two blocks away from the the campus.

Jones was in court Wednesday morning. The judge said because of the seriousness of the allegations, and because he'd just moved to Brookings from Omaha in February, bond is set at $250,000 cash.

The list of charges is long, including one count of kidnapping, five counts of rape, two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery. While there are five counts of rape, police say there are just three victims.

Wednesday, we also learned that the most recent attack started out near Brookings High School. Investigators say Jones kidnapped the 24-year-old woman at knife-point, and then took the woman to another location where he raped her.