A traveling businessman from Oregon has been found guilty of raping a woman in a Bloomington hotel last November, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday.

After a two-week trial and a full day of deliberation, a jury found Jimmy Hortiz, 42, of The Dalles, Ore., guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree assault.

According to charges and trial testimony, the victim, who was 27 at the time of the assault, said that on the night of Nov. 29, she was at the bar at the Double Tree Hotel on Normandale Boulevard with friends and had enough drinks to become intoxicated.

She next remembered gasping awake in a hotel room with a man she did not know sexually assaulting her. The victim said she resisted, which angered Hortiz. He choked her, punched her, grabbed her by the hair and shoved her head into a dresser as she fought back, the charges say.

At a hospital, the victim was found to have numerous injuries consistent with physical and sexual assault.

Police found substantial physical evidence in the room.

Hortiz, who was in town on a business trip, told police that he had allowed the woman to come to his room to use the bathroom, but when she emerged, she was wearing only a towel. She began kissing him but he said no and she became angry, he claimed. He told police that she threw a hotel phone and a lamp at him and the lamp flew back into her face, causing her injuries. However, a Bloomington detective said the lamps and phone appeared to be undisturbed.

STAFF REPORT