New ‘3 Strikes’ Charges Filed Against Oxnard Man : Crime: Second set of counts facing defendant results from alleged attempt to sexually assault cellmate.

A 52-year-old Oxnard man who allegedly tried to rape his cellmate while awaiting sentencing under the state’s new “three-strikes” law was charged Wednesday under the tough statute a second time.

Roosevelt Carlton McCowan is the first defendant charged under the three-strikes provision twice in Ventura County and might be the first in the state, authorities said.

McCowan already faced a 25-years-to-life sentence for stealing 18 bottles of cologne when he was charged last month with attempted forcible sodomy and attempted sodomy in a corrections facility, both felonies.

Either charge could be used as a basis for a second 25-years-to-life sentence, since each new felony beyond the original three can trigger a three-strikes prosecution.

Prosecutors announced their decision to seek the second three-strikes conviction against McCowan for the sodomy case during an arraignment Wednesday in which the stocky, bearded defendant pleaded not guilty.

Enacted six months ago, the three-strikes law requires the long prison term for anyone convicted of a felony who has two prior serious or violent felonies.

Consequently, McCowan could be ordered to serve back-to-back sentences of 25 years to life if the sodomy charges against him lead to a conviction, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bob Calvert said.

“If a judge wanted to, he could stack two 25-year-to-life sentences,” Calvert said.

McCowan’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Douglas W. Daily, said prosecutors are abusing their authority. “My concern is when you throw enough weak cases in the air, the probability is that after a while something will stick,” he said.

McCowan is one of a handful of Ventura County defendants charged so far under the three-strikes law. But his case has drawn an inordinate amount of attention because he was first charged under the new law for petty theft, instead of a violent or drug-related offense.

In selling the three-strikes law to the public, supporters promoted it as a way to rid California streets of violent offenders and drug dealers. Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has said that McCowan is violent and argued that the three-strikes law is being put to good use in his case.

Saddled with a long rap sheet--including convictions for assault, burglary and robbery--McCowan was accused of stealing 18 bottles of cologne from an Oxnard Sav-on Drugs store March 8. That was just one day after Gov. Pete Wilson signed the three-strikes measure into law.

Because McCowan had a previous theft offense when he stole the cologne, he was convicted of felony petty theft by a Superior Court jury July 21--paving the way for a mandatory three-strikes sentence.

Two days after the cologne conviction, as his attorneys prepared an appeal, McCowan’s 31-year-old cellmate told guards at the Ventura County Jail that McCowan had tried to rape him.

The man, who had been serving a short jail term for petty theft, testified at a preliminary hearing that McCowan chased him around their small cell for more than an hour while trying to molest him.

Prosecutors originally charged McCowan with forcible sodomy. But a judge reduced the charge to attempted forcible sodomy after hearing the victim’s testimony. Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele set a jury trial in the sodomy case for Oct. 23.

Daily has filed a motion to overturn the cologne conviction. A hearing is set for Sept. 9 in Superior Court.

Prosecutor Calvert said the district attorney’s office did not consider McCowan’s cologne conviction when deciding to charge him as a three-strikes defendant a second time. In court papers, prosecutors cite a 1978 residential burglary and a 1988 robbery as his first two strikes, and reasons he should receive 25 years to life in prison if convicted of attempted sodomy.

“We evaluate each case on its merits and make the decision, and that’s what we did in this case,” Calvert said.