Prostitute attacked; suspects steal truck

Police have released a composite sketch of one of two men suspected of sexually assaulting a prostitute in a Costa Mesa hotel Wednesday morning, then stealing her truck.

The sketch is of a man police describe as 6-foot, black, in his 30s with a medium build, shaved head, bad, crooked, stained and missing teeth and cursive letters tattooed across his chest.

Police say that man, along with an accomplice, attacked a 25-year-old prostitute from Tijuana inside the Comfort Inn hotel off Newport Boulevard.

About 2 a.m. Wednesday, the woman invited two men up to her room at the Comfort Inn, police said. Once inside, police say the men tied her up, put a pillow case over her head and sexually assaulted her. One of the men was armed with a handgun, Sgt. Paul Beckman said.

The attackers then took the woman’s purse and cash, and stole her pick-up truck, officials said.

The woman’s truck is listed as an electric blue 2006 Toyota Tacoma 4-door pick-up truck with a Baja, Mexico, license plate.

The license-plate number is AL15852. The woman suffered some bruising in the assault but was not hospitalized, police said.

This is at least the second violent attack against a prostitute in three months. In May, a 25-year-old prostitute from Las Vegas was raped and stabbed in a parking lot just off MacArthur and Harbor boulevards.

The suspect description in the May attack does not match the men described in Wednesday’s attack, and the suspect in the May assault remains at-large.

“Certainly, we have seen in the past women who engage in prostitution do become victimized and because of their occupation dealing with strangers, it opens them up to that pool of victimization,” Beckman said.