The homeless man accused of chasing a UC Berkeley student into her apartment was finally hauled into jail Tuesday — but not for that crime.
Kenneth Kenji Stine, 50, was arrested after Berkeley police found him and discovered an unrelated outstanding warrant, days after officers had detained him over the alleged confrontation with student Eden Winograd and then released him, citing insufficient evidence for a stalking charge.
Now Stine is sitting in jail on the old warrant while prosecutors decide whether his bizarre encounter with Winograd warrants new charges.
The latest twist comes after Winograd posted security footage of the Sept. 15 incident, the video racked up more than 2 million views on TikTok.
Winograd said Stine ran toward her while she was walking her dog around 8 p.m. that night. She raced back to her off-campus apartment building near UC Berkeley, but the man allegedly followed her and climbed over the security gate seconds after she got inside.
“My heart sank. I was out of breath,” she told NBC Bay Area. “I don’t want to be chased and have to watch someone claw their way up a wall to get into where I live.”
Winograd made it into an elevator and escaped to her apartment.
Police took more than an hour to respond, saying officers were tied up with other priority incidents, including a missing autistic child and a domestic violence call, according to The Berkeley Scanner.
The following night, Winograd spotted Stine sleeping near Berkeley Way and Walnut Street and called police.
Officers detained him, identified him and spoke with him, but released him while the incident was being treated as misdemeanor trespassing and the case was sent for review.
That decision helped turn the case into an online firestorm.
Frustrated by the response, Winograd posted edited surveillance footage to TikTok, including a slowed-down portion that appeared to show Stine pulling an object from his pocket.
Investigators said they could establish that Stine ran in Winograd’s direction before entering the building, but could not definitively establish that he chased her.
“You guys don’t do anything until it’s too late,” she said. “This happens too often to too many people.”
Meanwhile, Stine has an unusually bizarre online footprint.
He has written on Facebook about “hearing voices in my head continuously,” which he attributed in 2021 to what he claimed was a secret DARPA program capable of reading and transmitting people’s thoughts.
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On YouTube, Stine calls himself “God” in one video, adding another strange layer to the online persona that has emerged as the case has drawn attention.
Berkeley police located Stine again Sept. 22 and discovered the outstanding warrant, giving officers the legal authority to arrest and book him into jail.
He is not currently jailed on new stalking or trespassing charges connected to Winograd. Stine will remain held on the outstanding warrant while the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office decides whether to add charges stemming from the apartment incident.
The post Terrifying mugshot shows homeless man who chased California college student into her apartment appeared first on New York Post.
