Predator who should have been in prison charged in Minneapolis rape, carjacking

(Alpha News): 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 Minneapolis sexual assault and carjacking case.

The suspect was also the subject of a manhunt in Otter Tail County over the weekend, where he apparently fled following Friday’s incident in Minneapolis.

Crime Watch Minneapolis reported on Friday afternoon that police had been dispatched to an address in Uptown Minneapolis on a report of a carjacking at knife point, according to police scanner audio. 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.

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, according to the charges. The suspect then forced the victim to drive to McDonald’s on East Lake Street, the charges say.

After leaving McDonald’s, the suspect told the victim to drive to the area of 28th and Colfax Avenue South, 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 witness saw the suspect drive off in the victim’s vehicle.

The victim was observed by police to have multiple scratches on her arms, legs, and shoulders.

At some point on June 8, a State Patrol trooper found the victim’s vehicle on I-94 between Fergus Falls and Dalton, Minn. The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office had sent out a shelter-in-place notice early Saturday to nearby residents as a manhunt took place looking for the suspect, who was eventually located and detained about 2:40 p.m. after a resident spotted him at a rest area.

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, the charges state. Video was obtained from McDonald’s that showed the victim driving her vehicle and showed the passenger with a distinctive rip in his jeans. Video was also 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. Two other charges of first-degree burglary and threats of violence were dismissed under the terms of a plea deal, and Rodriguez was sentenced to 68 months in prison. As a result of the conviction, Rodriguez is required to register as a predatory offender. 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 from police in the city of Melrose, Minn., according to court documents in that case.

The conviction was Rodriguez’s second for illegal gun possession, with a prior conviction in 2017.

Despite Rodriguez’s history as a predatory offender and the prior illegal gun possession case, his 60-month prison sentence was stayed for five years by Judge Andrew R. Pearsonin a downward departure from sentencing guidelines.

Instead, Judge Pearson sentenced Rodriguez to 189 days of time already served, 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 in that case was stayed by Judge Dwayne Knutsen. Rodriquez was instead placed on probation for a term of five years.

Even if the sentences in the two 2022 convictions had run concurrently, and under Minnesota’s two-thirds sentencing law, Rodriguez would have been in prison until mid-2025. Instead, he was in the community on probation.

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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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.

Source: www.lawofficer.com