A man who police say broke into a woman's Brooklyn Park apartment and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint in December was charged this week after authorities detected what they say is his DNA on a cigarette butt found at the scene.

Mubarak Mohamud Farah, 23, of St. Louis Park, was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree burglary, both felonies. The woman was attacked Dec. 6, 2010, in her apartment on 73rd Avenue N.

According to charges:

Police arrived at 1:30 a.m. to the apartment complex, where the distraught woman said she awoke to see a tall man wearing dark clothes and a white mask in her bedroom. She said the man grabbed her by her hair, pointed a gun at her head and raped her.

He then allegedly came in and out of her bedroom several times and asked for her personal identification numbers before leaving. After the woman called 911, she saw the rapist had taken her electronics along with her identification and debit cards.

County crime lab technicians found a cigarette butt in the woman's sink and analyzed it for DNA. They said it matched Farah. He was arrested Monday. According to the charges, he admitted penetrating the woman but said she consented. He allegedly admitted taking her property.

Farah remains in the county jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. He is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday. According to state court records, Farah pled guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2005

ABBY SIMONS