Winery cellar master charged with raping Tri-Cities teen is accused of attacking before
A Benton City winery employee was facing child rape accusations before he allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped a teen in March.
A woman came forward in 2022 to report that Jose Marcelo-Bustos, 37, raped her 15 years earlier, when she was in elementary school, according to court documents.
Nearly a year later, Yakima prosecutors charged him with first-degree child rape.
A summons was issued for him to appear for court and Judge Jeffrey Swan decided he could be released without bail.
Court documents say he had no previous convictions or other pending cases at the time.
When the charges were filed in Yakima, Marcelo-Bustos was working at the Upchurch Vineyard as the cellar master.
Nearly a year after those charges were filed, he allegedly contacted a Pasco teen using SnapChat and posed as a 16-year-old. He helped her leave her home on March 14 after an argument with her parents, according to court documents.
He took her to the winery and refused her requests to be taken home, then he assaulted her, said investigators.
After the initial attack, he forced her to drink some wine, which made her pass out. He allegedly assaulted her again after that.
Marcelo Bustos is currently in the Benton County jail charged with two counts of second-degree rape and one count of first-degree kidnapping. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Yakima accusation
In March 2022, a woman went to the Grandview Police Department to report being raped by Marcelo-Bustos at his home about 15 years earlier when she was a grade-schooler, according to documents filed in Yakima County.
She remembered one attack, but thought there may have been others she had blocked out, said court documents.
She reportedly told family about pain related to the attack but was never taken for a medical examination.
In 2022, Marcelo-Bustos denied the attack, claiming the woman was retaliating for getting her in trouble for using psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana.
This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 2:59 PM.