A second man now faces charges in connection with a rape and kidnapping at gunpoint in January in the city’s Eastside, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.
Esmin Geovany Flores-Rodriguez, 19 (12/29/1996), faces Rape, Sodomy or Attempted Sodomy in the 1st Degree, Assault in the 1st Degree and Tampering with a Motor Vehicle.*
According to court records, a woman told police she was forced at gunpoint to an unknown location, where the defendant and another man allegedly raped and sodomized her. The victim and a friend went to a residence on Fremont Avenue and the victim waited in the running car. She fell asleep, but woke up when the front passenger door opened and two men stood outside.
The men told the woman that her friend had asked them to drive her home, according to court records. They drove her away. At one point, she tried to get out of the car. They drove her to an unknown field and repeatedly raped her at gunpoint. The returned her to 12th and Fremont Avenue, where her friend tried to intervene. The men fired several shots and left the scene.
A first defendant, Omar Lopez-Maldonado, already faces charges in this case. Police, according to court records, tracked down the second defendant through a phone number, and with the help of federal immigration agents located Flores-Rodriguez in North Carolina, where he currently is in custody.
Prosecutors have requested a bond of $250,000.
*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded.