‘3-Strikes’ Law Used Twice Against Oxnard Suspect

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

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

McCowan already was facing a 25-year-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-year-to-life sentence because 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 at 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 convictions for serious or violent felonies.

As a consequence, 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 is one of only a few Ventura County defendants charged so far under the three-strikes law. But his case has drawn more 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-strike law is being put to good use in his case.

McCowan, whose long rap sheet includes convictions for assault, burglary and robbery, was accused of stealing the cologne March 8 from an Oxnard Sav-on drugstore. 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 July 21 of felony petty theft by a Superior Court jury--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 has set a jury trial in the sodomy case for Oct. 23.

McCowan’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Douglas W. Daily, could not be reached for comment after Wednesday’s arraignment. Daily has filed a motion to overturn the cologne conviction. A hearing is set for Sept. 9 in Superior Court.

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 that 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.