Warrant issued for alleged rapist

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WORTHINGTON — In the past several years, Burt Reynolds of Worthington has been convicted of several different crimes and was well known to local authorities. Now, there is a warrant out for an arrest, but authorities are not looking for Reynolds — they are looking for Yobani Augustin Mazariegos, who has allegedly been using the Reynolds alias for several years.

When law enforcement personnel went to his place of employment in Windom, they learned he had left the plant at noon without telling anyone. His whereabouts were unknown as of Thursday afternoon.

Authorities learned of Reynold’s real identity while investigating a report of rape against a man known to the victim as “Yobani.” The complaint filed Thursday in Nobles County District Court states an officer investigating a report of assault in December was given a description of a Guatemalan man in his early to mid-20s with a medium build, short black hair and two marks on both of his cheeks. The victim said Yoani worked at PM Beef in Windom and attended the International Pentecostal United Church in Worthington.

The victim said she was raped by the man she knew from church on Dec. 1. Yobani had come to her home to talk, but refused to leave when asked. Instead, she said, he shut the front door, dragged her into the bathroom and raped her.

When she tried to fight back, he threatened to hurt her young daughters, who were in the house. The victim’s 3-year-old daughter opened the bathroom door, saw what was happening and began to scream. The man then dragged the victim into her bedroom, pinned her hands above her head and raped her again. Believing the threats toward her daughters, the woman said she did not resist.

When he was finished, Yoani apologized and asked her not to cry. He allegedly said he had made a mistake and got carried away, then ran out the door.

The victim said there was no previous relationship between the two. She allegedly called her pastor and told him what had happened, but when the pastor spoke to Yobani, he claimed the intercourse had been consensual. The victim was afraid to call authorities, believing Yoani’s claim that he would hurt her daughters if she reported him. Several days later, a friend convinced her to contact authorities.

On Dec. 10, the victim told the investigating officer she had learned the man’s full name. It was Yobani Augustin Mazariegos. She had a DVD of him getting baptized at her church, and in the video, the man’s name was spoken aloud. She knew where he lived, she said.

The officer went to the address on Milton Avenue and spoke to a man he knew as Reynolds, who said he didn’t know anyone by the name Yobani.

The following day, a detective with the Worthington Police Department reviewed the DVD and saw the person being baptized in the video and being identified as Mazariegos was someone he knew as Burt Reynolds. The victim watched the video with the detective several days later and positively identified the man being baptized as the man who had raped her.

Back at the Milton Avenue address, the detective served a search warrant and a woman greeted him at the door. She claimed not to know anyone by the name Yobani, but said she knew Burt Reynolds.

Later she admitted Mazariegos was her brother, who used the Reynolds name to work at the Windom plant. She said Mazariegos, who is 23, had been in Minnesota since he was 17. She also claimed she was home the day the officer came by looking for Yobani and heard him identify himself as Reynolds.

Convictions under the Reynolds name have included drunk driving, driving after revocation, burglary and receiving stolen property. He has served time in the Nobles County Jail and is currently on probation until 2013.

Mazariegos is charged with four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of second-degree, one count of third-degree and one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, along with one count of terroristic threats.

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