Predator who should have been in prison charged in Minneapolis rape, carjacking
By Crime Watch MN, June 11, 2024
A convicted predatory offender who should have been in prison on convictions in at least two cases, including a gun crime, has now been charged in a new sexual assault and carjacking case.
Crime Watch reported on Friday afternoon that police had been dispatched to an address in Uptown Minneapolis on a report of a carjacking at knife point. Later dispatches and information obtained by Crime Watch, indicated that the incident had occurred at Cedar Lake in Minneapolis and that it had also involved a sexual assault.
Eliezer Rodriguez, 31, of north Minneapolis was booked into custody at Hennepin County Jail late Sunday night and has now been charged with felony counts of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree sexual assault while armed, and first-degree armed carjacking. *Rodriguez’s booking lists Hutchinson, MN as his address.
Charges state that the victim told police she had been walking on a trail at Cedar Lake toward her vehicle when she was suddenly attacked and raped at knife point in the woods while the suspect threatened to stab her.
The suspect then walked the victim back to her car and forced her to drive him around. They eventually ended up in a parking ramp where the suspect raped her again. The suspect then forced the victim to drive to McDonalds on East Lake Street.
After leaving McDonalds, the suspect told the victim to drive to the area of 28th and Colfax Ave S, where he pulled out a syringe and told the victim he had one more thing to do. The victim was then able to escape the vehicle and run, when a passerby asked her if she needed help. The victim told the witness that she had been raped and the suspect tried to drug her.
The victim was observed by police to have multiple scratches on her arms, legs, and shoulders.
A State Patrol trooper later found the victim’s vehicle on I-94 between Fergus Falls and Dalton, MN. The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office had sent out a shelter-in-place notice overnight/early Saturday to nearby residents as a manhunt took place for the suspect who was eventually located and detained.
The suspect, identified at that time as Rodriguez, was transported for a medical evaluation where he was observed with scratches on his bicep and upper torso that were consistent with defensive wounds. Video was obtained from McDonalds that showed the victim driving her vehicle and showed the passenger with a distinctive rip in his jeans. Video was obtained from a Dalton business that showed the suspect with the same rip near the left knee.
CRIMINAL HISTORY
Rodriguez has a 2016 conviction for kidnapping and aggravated robbery after he forced a woman at gunpoint from her Barnum, Minn., home and forced her to drive him to Pine County. Rodriguez was sentenced to 68 months in prison following the conviction and is required to register as a predatory offender as a result. Under Minnesota law, Rodriguez was only required to serve about 45 months of the 68-month sentence.
However, Rodriguez should have been incarcerated at the time of the alleged rape and carjacking last week following convictions in two separate cases in two counties in 2022.
Rodriguez was convicted in Stearns County in March 2022 for being a felon in possession of a firearm after he was captured fleeing police in the city of Melrose, Minn.
Rodriguez’s 60-month prison sentence was stayed for five years by Judge Andrew R. Pearson, despite Rodriguez’s history as a predatory offender.
Instead, Judge Pearson sentenced Rodriguez to 189 days of time served in a downward departure from sentencing guidelines and he was placed on probation for a term of five years.
Two weeks later, also in March 2022, Rodriquez was convicted in Renville County on a felony count of being a non-compliant predatory offender. His 45-month prison sentence was stayed by Judge Dwayne Knutsen. Rodriquez was instead placed on probation for a term of five years.
Rodriguez is currently being held in Hennepin County Jail on $500,000 bail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday.
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