By The Porterville Recorder
Three suspects arrested in an October raid of three local businesses are headed to trial Jan. 7 on several charges stemming from an alleged rape in June 2006.

Roy Rodriguez, Gennevive “Eva” Strong and Sortero Forster “Biggie” Cruz were among the 10 people who Porterville police arrested Oct. 20 when authorities raided Main Line Clothing and Personal Touch Limousines and Car Wash, which police said were money-laundering fronts for the Nuestra Familia prison gang.

Police said they used the bust as an opportunity to arrest the three on charges stemming from the alleged rape. The seven others charged in connection to the bust have pleaded guilty to minor offenses, according to court documents. Attorneys agreed to a January trial date at a hearing last week.

The three suspects and another man, Samuel Roberts, on June 16, 2006 allegedly kidnapped, beat, raped and sodomized a Porterville man who allegedly owed Roy Rodriguez money. A portion of the incident occurred at the Tavcam Inn, according to court records.

Strong and Cruz each face kidnapping and kidnapping-to-commit-robbery charges. Cruz also faces an assault with a deadly weapon charge, as he is alleged to have hit the man with a pipe.

Roy Rodriguez faces the majority of charges. In addition to the kidnapping charges both Strong and Cruz face, Rodriguez is accused of two counts of forced oral copulation, assault with a deadly weapon and sodomy.

For Rodriguez, who also faces a felony drug possession-for-sale charge in connection to the Main Line bust, conviction on any of the charges could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

He was previously imprisoned on two armed robbery convictions and a July 1979 second-degree murder conviction in San Bernardino County — all strike offenses. “If he is convicted of a felony it would make him eligible for 25 years to life in prison,” Deputy District Attorney Anthony Fultz said. “He is in a difficult position.”

Cruz also faces a first-degree murder charge in an separate case. He is one of two people charged for the conspired shooting death of 14-year-old Eduardo Luna, the city’s third homicide victim in 2006, the deadliest year on record in Porterville.

Cruz faces the death penalty in that case, which is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in September.