Alleged rapist makes first appearance

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE -A 46-year-old man suspected of abducting and sexually assaulting two South Lake Tahoe women is facing multiple felony charges. If convicted on all counts, Edwin Robert Carlevato could be facing five life-term sentences in a California prison.

Carlevato waived his right to an immediate arraignment on the charges Monday, after his defense attorneys objected to requests from several television stations to bring cameras into the courtroom. The arraignment was set back to Friday at 3 p.m. to allow the defense time to state its argument against camera access. Carlevato's bail was raised from $250,000 to $750,000.

El Dorado County Deputy District Attorney Peter O'Hara filed eight felony counts Monday including several enhancements charging Carlevato with the Oct. 31 kidnapping and rape of a 51-year-old woman, and the July 10 kidnapping and sexual assault of a 34-year-old woman. Carlevato was not charged with a September 1998 abduction attempt of a 20-year-old woman that police thought might be linked to the two other assaults.

Carlevato was arrested Thursday at a Jackson casino, where he works as a card dealer. Several people reportedly called police and identified Carlevato as the man police were searching for, after viewing media reports of the rape suspect. South Lake Tahoe Police Detective Brian Williams said search warrants of Carlevato's home in Pioneer, Calif., turned up gambling receipts placing Carlevato in South Lake Tahoe on the days of the attacks.

During the July 10 incident the woman was hitchhiking in the Stateline area in the early morning hours when she was picked up by a man in a dark sedan. After stopping at a convenience store, where the man was captured on the store's security camera, the man took the woman out of the basin on State Route 89 toward Luther Pass. The woman was threatened with a gun, assaulted, forced to disrobe and then dropped off at Picketts Junction. On Oct. 31, the victim was abducted at gunpoint and driven to Alpine County where she was attacked and then forced out the car.