VALPARAISO | Porter Superior Judge Roger Bradford denied a request Monday from Arturo Garcia-Torres, who has been accused of two rapes, to hold separate trials on the two incidents.

Defense attorney Visvaldis Kupsis argued the incidents are different enough to warrant their own trials.

The first incident of July 18, 2004, involved a man forcing his way into an apartment on Homer Court and LaPorte Avenue in Valparaiso and striking a 21-year-old woman while raping her, Kupsis said.

The incident on June 12, 2005, was nearly a year later, he said. The man climbed through a window of an apartment on Garfield Street in Valparaiso and was less violent as he attempted to rape a 25-year-old woman.

Prosecutors need to show a common scheme or plan in order to try the incidents together, Kupsis said.

If the cases are handled together, he fears 21-year-old Garcia-Torres, an illegal alien from Mexico, will not be able to receive a fair trial. The approach would eliminate his ability to use different theories or defenses.

Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Cheryl Polarek said DNA evidence linking Garcia-Torres to the crimes was collected at each site and that link needs to be presented to the jury.

"You cannot separate them," she said.

There is also a similarity in that each crime scene is within a half mile or less of where Garcia-Torres was living in Valparaiso, Polarek said.

Bradford said he could not see how one case could be tried apart from the other.

The trial is set to get under way on March 31 with the assistance of a Spanish speaking interpreter. He is charged with rape, attempted rape and two counts of burglary.