Homeless man faces life for rape if convicted

FREMONT — A homeless man who has three prior convictions for forcible rape could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted of sexually assaulting a woman Saturday. Michael Edward Boutta, 53, was charged at the Fremont Hall of Justice on Wednesday with a single count of rape and was ordered to return today and possibly enter a plea. He is being held at Santa Rita county jail in Dublin in lieu of $580,000 bail. Boutta has six prior convictions dating back to 1976, including three in 1990 for forcible rape. The other cases involve two second-degree robberies and a first-degree residential robbery, according to court records. California Department of Corrections records indicatethat Boutta was sentenced in 1990 to 19 years in state prison and had been paroled five times since March 2000, most recently on Jan.

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