DeQuarn Marketyh Bell Indicted For Allegedly Assaulting Woman With Hot Curling Iron
EDITOR'S NOTE: A warning, this story contains graphic details of sexual assault.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 24-year-old Hopkins man is accused of brutally assaulting his girlfriend with a curling iron.
A Hennepin County grand jury indicted DeQuarn Markeyth Bell on felony charges of criminal sexual conduct, assault and soliciting prostitution last week.
Hopkins police officers were dispatched to a gas station to investigate reports of a prior domestic assault on Sept. 9. According to a criminal complaint, Bell's girlfriend told police officers that he had assaulted her in late-July.
She described a horrific attack, in which Bell, "repeatedly burned her with a hot curling iron, all over her body, including her face, neck, chest, armpit, back, and leg."
Then Bell allegedly used the hot curling iron to sexually assault the woman. The complaint states that a medical examination revealed, "redness and scarring to her external genitalia and the inside of her vaginal opening, consistent with being burned with a curling iron."
After the assault, the victim said that Bell took her phone and keys away and wouldn't allow her to leave the apartment. According to the complaint, "on Sept. 9, she was able to escape on foot to the gas station, where she called the police."
Police officers served a search warrant at Bell's apartment – there they were able to recover a curling iron.
The victim was called to the police department to identify the object as the assault weapon. Authorities say she broke down and began sobbing when she saw the iron.
Now Bell is being held on $2 million bail. A jury trial has been scheduled for March 16.
