San Diego

Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of an ex-convict who investigators say is responsible for a crime rampage that terrorized East San Diego residents in August, 1989.

Emmanuel Lucious, 30, is being tried on 12 felony counts stemming from attacks on three residences, including one in which a 64-year-old woman was raped.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Josephine Kiernan detailed for the jury the crimes Lucious allegedly committed.

Besides the rape, Lucious is charged with one count of attempted rape in an attack on the same woman, one count of assault with the intent to rape, three counts of residential robbery with the use of a gun, one count of attempted residential robbery, four counts of residential burglary with the use of a gun, one count of false imprisonment.

Kiernan said DNA testing will reveal that Lucious was the man who raped a woman in her neighbor’s house while the neighbor was forced to lie on the floor in another room.

Lucious had been freed after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence for similar crimes only six weeks before the crime spree in the Oak Park area of East San Diego.

Lucious is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, and his trial is expected to last well into the new year.