San Diego

The preliminary hearing for a convicted rapist charged with raping an elderly woman six weeks after he was paroled from prison began Wednesday with the prosecutor detailing his alleged two-day crime spree.

In her opening statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Josephine Kiernan said Emmanuel Lucious, 30, of Southeast San Diego burglarized three houses, assaulted the inhabitants of each residence, raped a 65-year-old woman, and attempted to rape another woman on two days last August.

Kiernan told San Diego Municipal Judge Charles G. Rogers that Lucious’ fingerprints were found at the site of one break-in, his hair is similar to a hair discovered where the rape took place and his blood type corresponds to evidence collected after the rape.

Lucious faces 12 felony counts stemming from the Oak Park crime spree, in which all of the victims were more than 60 years old. His preliminary hearing is expected to take three or four days.

Prosecutors rarely make opening statements in preliminary hearings, but Kiernan said afterward that because this case has more than 30 witnesses and a lot of complicated details that she felt it necessary.

Lucious was released from prison last summer after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence for sexually assaulting teachers at two area elementary schools. These crimes, which occurred in 1981, were committed just 10 days after Lucious was released from prison after a four-year prison term for other sexual assaults.

Because of his prior record, Lucious is also accused of being a habitual offender, which could send him to prison for 20 years on that charge alone.

Lucious remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.