VENTURA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say a man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman walking her dog near a Ventura beach died after he was beaten by people who may have come from a nearby homeless encampment.
Ventura police say 31-year-old Jose Mendez of Ventura died Monday. He'd been hospitalized since May 5, when the woman was attacked when she followed her unleashed dog into some brush near Emma Wood State Beach.
Investigators say the woman screamed and the attacker fled but several people who were in a nearby river bottom where there was a homeless camp chased Mendez and knocked him unconscious.
