Wheeling police will travel to Maryland today to retrieve the man wanted for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl at a Wheeling Island playground earlier this month.
David Maya, 24, of Elkridge, Md., has remained incarcerated in Howard County, Md., since law enforcement arrested him there Friday. No additional details of his arrest were made available.
Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said Maya did not fight his extradition to Ohio County when he appeared in a Maryland court room following his arrest.
After taking custody of Maya from Maryland law enforcement, police will transport him back to Wheeling to be arraigned in Ohio County Magistrate Court on four counts of second-degree sexual assault. If a magistrate judge is not available when Maya returns today, he will be lodged in the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville while awaiting an arraignment hearing on Friday.
If bond is set, and Maya is able to post it, a preliminary hearing will be scheduled within 10 days of his arraignment. However, Maya's apparent lack of ties to the area may prompt a magistrate to deny him bond to ensure he continues to appear in court.
According to a police report, the girl and Maya met in an Internet chat room; soon after, they exchanged contact information and began communicating via text message. Maya told the girl he was younger than his actual age, while she claimed she was older.
Maya reportedly traveled to the Belle Island playground at the north end of Wheeling Island to meet the girl on June 9. The pair were team members during a game of "jailbreak," a type of of hide-and-seek game that included the girl's friends, the report states. Maya and the girl then reportedly walked to a nearby wooded area where, despite her pleas to stop, he allegedly performed sex acts on her. The girl ran from the woods following the incident.
