Convicted sex offender behind bars again, accused of similar crime

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A west-side community is concerned after a convicted sex offender moved into their neighborhood, only to get arrested again recently for an eerily-similar crime.

Daniel Jay Carpio, 30, was on intensive probation after being released from prison in January and moving into his mother's Erie Street home.

That's where, about three months later, he was accused of allegedly attacking a teenage girl on April 14.

Some say they saw this coming.

St. Mary's and Grande-area residents were provided a sex-offender notification flier when Daniel Carpio moved into his mother's home in the 1000 block of West Erie Street.

Following a 2011 conviction and three years in prison, that flier listed Carpio as a level-two sex offender.

Neighbors received the news as well as they could.

"I'm very upset with that," said Michael Almazan, who lives just across the street with his family. "I have a 4-year-old daughter, so I'm very uncomfortable with the whole situation."

But some say Carpio actually seemed sincere at first and wanted to make amends with as many people as he could.

"Even though we really didn't know what he did in the past, we gave him a chance," says one neighbor who asked to remain nameless. "We wanted to give him the opportunity, you know…to just be neighbors."

That is, until Carpio was identified by a teenage girl who claims she was drugged and raped by the convicted sex offender, according to Tucson Police.

Even worse, the alleged assault took place inside the home Carpio shared with his mother.

At first, some thought the news was only a rumor.

"It's nerve wracking, because like I said, we've known what he did in the past," the anonymous neighbor said.

Until authorities showed up on Erie Street.

"I saw the U.S. Marshals come in and try to find him," Almazan said, shaking his head. "And I knew right then what he must have done."

Around this time, surrounding neighborhoods like Barrio Hollywood posted information on Facebook about the wanted suspect.

The top of one Barrio Hollywood post says, "BEWARE! CIUDADO! Convicted Sex Offender Daniel Carpio of Erie Street is wanted again for rape."

A few days later, Carpio was brought in.

Since then, there's been a lot of speculation about his alleged role in other crimes, many of them sexual in nature, police said.

As of tonight, we haven't been able to substantiate those claims.

But court records show Carpio was charged four years ago with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and sexual assault of somebody 15 years of age or older.

This time around, he's accused of sexual assault and sexual conduct of a minor.

"Do you feel the system may have let the community down by letting somebody like this out?" Tucson News Now asked Michael Almazan.

"Definitely, definitely -- I've talked to detectives about that," the concerned father said. "I've told them I thought this guy needed to be caught and the system is not doing their job."

Carpio remains behind bars in the Pima County Jail on a series of felony charges.

Unless he enters a change of plea, his case will go to trial tentatively set to begin in January of next year.

Copyright 2014 Tucson News Now. All rights reserved.