A Lake Station man is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly breaking into a woman’s house and raping her.
Gendri Cano Del Valle, 42, is charged with rape, a Level 1 felony; burglary with a deadly weapon, a Level 2 felony; two counts of criminal confinement with a deadly weapon, a Level 3 felony; criminal confinement with moderate bodily injury, a Level 4 felony; and misdemeanor battery and theft.
Del Valle is being held without bail and his initial hearing is Aug. 7.
Around 8:58 p.m. on Aug. 1, Lake Station police were dispatched to the 2900 block of East 35th Avenue where a woman reported a man tried to force her into his vehicle at gunpoint, according to the probable cause affidavit. The woman said she was walking in a school parking lot when an older model red SUV drove up to her.
A man — who was in his 20s, wearing a green shirt, gray shorts, and about 5 feet tall — exited the vehicle, pointed a gun at her and tried to force her inside, records state. She fought with him and got the gun away from him. She thought the gun was fake because she tried to fire it at him and it didn’t function, court records state. She told police the man got back inside the SUV and headed south on Nebraska Street. She didn’t know what happened to the gun, which was no longer at the scene, the affidavit states.
The woman was treated for pain in her mouth and her neck, from the man trying to pull her into the vehicle.
About four hours later — at 1 a.m. on Aug. 2 — the woman called Hobart police to report a rape that happened in the 3500 block of Minnesota Street in Hobart, court records state. She told police that someone broke into her residence and raped her using a fake gun. The man fled on foot and took her cell phone, records state.
The woman told police that she was lying down in bed when she heard something but thought it was her cat. When she turned around, she saw a crouched figure and saw it was a man with a gun in his hand, the affidavit states. She struggled with him and took the firearm away from him and tried to fire it, but realized it was fake.
She said the man pounced on her and forcibly raped her, records state. She tried to get him to stop and leave and he kept responding in Spanish, which she couldn’t understand. She offered him money to stop but he declined, court records state. He kept asking her if she had a boyfriend.
Before he left, he asked if he could see her again; she told him to come back in 10 hours so she would have time to call the police and have him arrested, the affidavit states.
She thought her finger might have been broken during the fight over the gun.
After the man left, she grabbed a knife, car keys and a gun and drove to her parents’ house to get help since her phone was missing, court records state. She described the man as about 5-foot-6, in his 30s or 40s, wearing boots, baggy pants and a darker shirt, and having short hair.
Police were able to ping her cell phone and found a red GMC Yukon parked there with a man asleep in the passenger seat, records state. The man matched the description of her attacker. Police woke up the man and found the victim’s phone on the ground behind the vehicle, the affidavit states. Another man exited from the driver’s side and ran inside the residence; He matched the description of the man in the attempted abduction.
Both suspects were arrested and refused to cooperate with police in identifying themselves and they had no IDs on them during booking, court records state. The men said they didn’t speak English, so an officer communicated in Spanish with them. They were identified via fingerprints as they had been issued FBI numbers, records state.
Del Valle initially denied he was even in the area at the time of the abduction attempt even though a license plate reader pinged his license plate at 9:17 p.m. in New Chicago.
He told police that he didn’t have any bad intentions but had stopped to talk to a woman, the affidavit states. He initially denied having sexual relations with anyone that night, then claimed that he randomly decided to knock on the victim’s door, exchange no words except “Follow me” and have consensual sex. He repeatedly claimed he didn’t force her, court records state.
