Rodolfo Franco Of Oxnard Arrested In 2003, 2020 Sexual Assaults Of 3 Women
OXNARD (CBSLA) — An Oxnard man is scheduled to appear in court Monday on charges of sexual assault police say he committed in 2003 and 2020.
Rodolfo Fernandez Franco, 40, was arrested Saturday on charges of forcible rape and oral sex from crimes that happened in 2003 and 2020 involving three separate victims, according to Oxnard police. He is being held without bail.
The most recent crime Franco is believed to have committed happened on Dec. 20, 2020. Police say a woman was sleeping in the 100 block of South C Street in Oxnard when a man lay next to her and began to assault and strangle her. She believed she was about to be raped, so she fought off the man and he ran off, but left an item behind at the scene.
Police say evidence on that item matched Franco's DNA collected from two other sexual assaults back in 2003. On Feb. 16, 2003, a woman told police she gave a man a ride to several locations in Oxnard, but when she eventually parked in the 1800 block of Brookside Street, he threatened to kill her if she did not give him oral sex. The man choked the woman, forced her into the back seat and raped her, police said.
Just a few days later on Feb. 21, a 34-year-old woman told police she met a man in Oxnard who asked her for a ride to Ventura. When she asked him to get out of the car after driving around Ventura, police say he violently forced her to give him oral sex at knifepoint. She was able to get out of the car and run away the man, who also ran off.
A DNA profile from both the 2003 assaults were entered into the Combined DNA System, or CODIS, eventually matching up with the 2020 assault.
Police believe there may be other victims who have not reported similar incidents and have released booking photos of Franco from 2003, 2015, and 2021. Anyone with information about the case or other incidents involving Franco can call Detective Michael McManama at (805) 385-7662.
