Bobby Rollins Jr. arrested in connection with 1990 armed kidnapping and assault of teen in Oxnard

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – On Thursday, officials announced the arrest of Bobby Rollins Jr. of Long Beach in connection with an armed kidnapping and sexual assault in 1990 after recent DNA testing linked him to the cold case investigation.

Rollins was arrested without incident in Long Beach on June 10 of this year and he is currently scheduled for an arraignment in Ventura County Superior Court on June 12 shared the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

According to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, it is alleged that Rollins Jr. used a firearm during the violent encounter 36 years ago and prosecutors intend to request the court keep him in custody without bail during Friday's proceedings.

Rollins is facing a charge of kidnapping with the intent to commit robbery and the following special allegations:

• PC 12022.5–Personal Use of a Firearm
• PC 290.006–Court Order Registration for Offenses Committed Out of Sexual Compulsion or for Sexual Gratification; Determination of Registration Tier
• CRC 4.421(a)(1)–Crime Involved Great Violence
• CRC 4.421(a)(3)–Victim was Particularly Vulnerable
• CRC 4.421(a)(8)–Manner in Which the Crime was Carried Out Indicates Planning, Sophistication, or
  Professionalism
• CRC 4.421(b)(1)–Defendant has Engaged in Violent Conduct that Indicates a Serious Danger to Society
• CRC 4.421(b)(4)–Defendant was on Parole when the Crime was Committed

If convicted, Rollins faces a possible maximum sentence of life in state prison noted the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

On June 11, 1990, Rollins and a still-unidentified accomplice approached an 18-year-old woman while she was parked in a lot and the end of Perkins Road in Oxnard shared the local prosecutor's office.

She was forcibly removed from the vehicle at gunpoint, robbed of her property and forced down an embankment where she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Rollins detailed the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

Rollins is not facing charges related to the alleged sexual assault due to the statute of limitations noted the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

After the assault, the woman was able to return to her vehicle and drove away at high speeds before crashing her vehicle into a light pole about a half-mile away at the intersection of Perkins Road and Hueneme Road where witnesses and eventually Oxnard Police Department officers assisted her shared the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

According to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, forensic technology available at the time was unable to identify a suspect from the evidence collected during the initial investigation and the case remained unsolved for decades.

Ventura County received funding through the U.S. Department of Justice's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program in 2021 and 2023 to test sexual assault kits and pursue new leads in cold cases in the area explained the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

"Because evidence was carefully maintained for more than 30 years, it was still available when new DNA technology became capable of providing answers that simply weren't possible in 1990," Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff detailed. "Our Forensic Services Bureau submitted the evidence for advanced DNA testing and analysts were able to develop a male DNA profile, which was then uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The profile generated a match identifying Bobby Rollins Jr., providing investigators with a critical lead that ultimately resulted in his arrest."

It is believed that Rollins may have committed similar crimes between 1989 and 1992 added the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

Investigators are still working to identify the other person from the 1990 attack and anyone with information about this or other unreported crimes involving Rollins, you are asked to contact Ventura County District Attorney Investigator Yumi Kirk at 805-477-1638.