By JESSICA DAIGLE

Staff Reporter

HAHNVILLE-A 50-year-old Mandeville man has been charged with the forcible rape of a minor after he coerced his way into the minor’s residence in Bayou Gauche, according to a report from the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Victor J. Caronna was booked with forcible rape and unauthorized entry into an inhabited dwelling at the St. Charles Correctional Center last Wednesday evening.

According to the report, in March 2005, Caronna, who was acquainted with the victim and her family, coerced his way into the 16-year-old girl’s residence while her parents were not home. Once inside, he allegedly forced the victim to have sex with him.

Capt. Pat Yoes, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said the warrant for Caronna’s arrest was not issued until May 15, because the juvenile had waited to disclose the incident.

Caronna was in the custody of the Jefferson Parish Police before being transferred to St. Charles Parish, where he was arrested and booked accordingly.

In an unrelated incident, the sheriff’s office also reported that a clerk was robbed at gunpoint in a convenience store in Destrehan late Saturday night.

Yoes said a black male walked into the Holmes Food Mart on River Road and pointed a gun at the clerk, a 28-year-old LaPlace women, and demanded she empty the register. The women complied and the subject fled the scene with an unknown amount of money.

The incident is still under investigation.

According to Yoes, the robber was described as between 5’9 and 5’11, weighing approximately 140 lbs., and wearing a tan shirt, blue jeans, a baseball cap and a blue bandanna. Yoes said he was not sure if the store had a surveillance camera.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-877-903-STOP.