SAN MARCOS (CBS 8) – The mother of a North County rape survivor is speaking out about the alleged attack, the suspect, and whether he should have been out on the streets to begin with.
Jason Stey, 27, is being held on $300,000 bail, accused of beating, choking and raping a San Marcos smoke shop clerk on Sunday night.
On Tuesday, authorities reported Stey attempted to commit suicide in his cell at the Vista Detention Center. He is being treated for unspecified injuries at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Stay allegedly attacked a worker at Dab Central Smoke Shop in the 900 block of West San Marcos Boulevard.
"He followed her and took her from behind and put her in this headlock and started punching her," the victim's mother told CBS News 8.
The mother of the woman-- whose identity we have concealed to protect her daughter's privacy -- says her daughter endured pure torture.
"He strangled her. She has bruise marks all around her neck. He hit her, the surveillance cam showed, over 15 times in the head and face, and he knocked her tooth out. She said she felt the tooth go all the way back roof of her mouth. Split her lip. One side of her face is very, very beaten," she said.
When her attacker went to lock the front door, she did something that probably saved her life.
"She crawled over to the cash register, and knew where the phone was, dialed 911, pressed send and then she put the phone in her shoe and pushed it as far away from her as she could," her mother said.
It worked. The dispatcher could hear everything. After the violent rape, the woman says her daughter was afraid he might kill her or take off, so she tried to befriend him.
"She said 'Take all the money, I'll tell my boss this is a robbery, give you all my money. You have my cell phone, you can't call anyone. You'll have plenty of time to get away. Let's make sure you can get away.' So she was kind of on his side.
"They heard somebody coming thru the door, and she went out there. 'He's in the back, go get him,'" she said.
Court records show Stey is an ex-con with a long criminal history of theft and assault violations. At the age of 17, he was convicted of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon when he broke into a neighbor's house and hit a girl over the head with a glass Pyrex cup.
He has convictions for receiving stolen property, and vehicle theft in 2006 and evading arrest in 2008. In 2011 he assaulted a man with a knife and was sentenced to four years in prison.
If convicted of this sexual assault, he could be sentenced to life behind bars under the state's Three Strikes law.
"The satisfaction for her is this guy violated… he took her, he hurt her, and yet, he didn't get away with it and she made sure he didn't get away with it," the woman said.