Man Found Guilty Of Raping 5 Oakland Women
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A former Brazilian police officer has been convicted in Alameda County Superior Court of raping five women in Oakland in 2009.
A jury deliberated for only a few hours before finding 41-year-old Gleiston Andrade guilty Monday of six counts of forcible oral copulation and seven counts of rape against five victims between April 9, 2009, and Oct. 26, 2009.
Andrade could face multiple life terms in state prison when he is sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer on March 23.
Prosecutor Erin Kingsbury said Andrade, who worked as a truck driver after he moved to the U.S., picked up his victims on or near International Boulevard in Oakland and then drove them to secluded areas, where he pulled out a gun, forced them to orally copulate him and raped them.
Kingsbury said he drove three of his victims to an industrial area near the High Street Bridge along the Oakland-Alameda border and two of his victims to San Antonio Park in East Oakland.
Four of the victims worked as prostitutes, she said.
In several instances, Andrade told victims he was a police officer, according to Kingsbury.
Andrade was identified as the culprit in every case, and DNA evidence linked him to two of the victims, she said.
Andrade was initially charged with sexually assaulting six victims, but Kingsbury said she had to dismiss some of the charges because one victim was unavailable to testify.
The prosecutor said four of the victims testified during the trial, and prior testimony was presented from the fifth victim.
Andrade's lawyer, Colleen Murray, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
In her opening statement last month, Murray told jurors that she would ask them to find Andrade not guilty because she believed there was little evidence connecting him to the crimes.
Murray said the DNA evidence is contaminated and "should be in question." She said Andrade never even met the victims in the case.
She also said Oakland police had many unsolved cases in which a man who was posing as a police officer was raping women and alleged that "they wanted to pin all of them on Mr. Andrade."
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