By Daily News staff

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jul ... lea_deals/?

Three men will serve seven years in a state prison for their roles in the gang rape of a woman in Immokalee in 2005 as part of separate plea deals reached with state prosecutors this morning.

Rene Perez-Garcia, 22, Mario Lopez-Luis, 19, and Alvarado Perez-Luis, 21, each pleaded no contest to charges of sexual battery with threat of serious bodily injury involving multiple perpetrators and kidnapping. They were each given credit for the time they have served in the Collier County jail since their arrests on Oct. 1, 2005.

The judge deemed them all sexual predators, meaning they will be deported back to Guatemala upon their release from prison.

Perez-Garcia, Lopez-Luis and Perez-Luis were charged in the rape of the woman who told authorities she was dragged from her trailer in a migrant work camp and gang-raped. She was able to bite one man’s tongue and held it in her mouth for evidence. The state also has DNA linking the men.

Originally, 14 men were charged in the case, but charges against 11 were dropped last year after prosecutors didn’t have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to bring charges against them for the attack.

Perez-Garcia, Lopez-Luis and Perez-Luis were scheduled to stand trial at the same time.

Jury selection, which was to begin this morning, was delayed while the defendants weighed whether to take the plea deals.

Defense attorneys and their clients spent most of the morning behind closed doors weighing the prosecution offers. The three defendants were also allowed to meet among themselves without their attorneys in the room.