Jury selection begins in rape trial

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - Jury selection in the case of alleged serial rapist Edwin Robert Carlevato began Monday.

Carlevato, 47, is charged with the kidnap and sexual assault of two South Shore women in 1999 and the kidnap of a woman in 1998.

Carlevato was arrested Nov. 4 1999, and has been in jail since awaiting trial.

Judge Jerald Lasarow said he hopes to a have a jury seated Dec. 13 and begin testimony the following week. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks partly because the witness list is 76 people deep.

Carlevato pleaded not guilty to all charges in January and recently rejected a plea agreement with El Dorado County that would have sentenced him to a life term in prison. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to several life terms.

Carvelato and his wife, a dispatcher with Jackson Rancheria Tribal Police, lived for the last nine years in Pioneer, a small community in Amador County off State Route 88.

Carlevato was arrested while working as manager of a poker room at Jackson Rancheria Casino. Law enforcement agents made the arrest after he was identified as a rape suspect on a convenience store's surveillance video.