COEUR d’ALENE — Despite an objection from his defense attorney, evidence from an earlier rape case will be allowed at Billy Joslin Jr.’s trial next week in First District Court.

District Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer ruled Thursday that evidence from the two cases, one stemming from 2006 and the most recent rape case involving Joslin, is too similar to hold back from jurors in a trial that starts Monday in Coeur d’Alene.

“The similarities between the 2006 incident based on police reports and the alleged facts in this case are remarkably similar,” Meyer said at a Thursday hearing.

After poring over both cases, Meyer said the 10 years that have passed since Joslin’s rape and strangulation convictions are peripheral compared to the significant uniformity of the details.

In the latest case, Joslin, 39, is accused of waiting for his ex-girlfriend to return to her Hayden home for lunch. He allegedly followed her inside, choked and raped her before driving her back to her job in her own car. He kept the victim’s vehicle and apartment keys and promised to pick her up after work.

Joslin eluded authorities who waited outside the 37-year-old victim’s workplace on Government Way. He was later arrested hiding in a friend’s shop in Post Falls.

Joslin spent five years in prison for a similar 2006 incident in which a girlfriend broke off their relationship and refused Joslin’s pleas to reconsider. In that case, Joslin waited at the woman’s apartment, forced his way in, strangled and raped her. In both cases, Meyer said, Joslin carried duct tape and used the same strangulation technique.

Calling evidence from the 2006 case prejudicial, public defender Amanda Montalvo asked the court to prevent jurors from hearing details that may have resulted in Joslin’s earlier conviction.

In the 2006 case, the victim was asked to take off her clothing and she complied, Montalvo said. The rape occurred at a different time of day than the 2016 charges allege, there were elements of consent, and a decade has passed since the 2006 incident, Montalvo said.

“I don’t think it’s relevant,” Montalvo said. “This case is substantially different.”

But Meyer stood by her decision.

“...The similarity of circumstances overrode any concerns about time lag,” Meyer said. “I really don’t see any reason to reconsider.”

At an earlier hearing, Montalvo asked the court to reduce Joslin’s bond from $250,000 to $100,000, but Meyer ruled the quarter million dollar bond was appropriate considering the penalty for forcible rape is up to life in prison.

“When we have charges with such long potential sentences, there is a risk of flight,” Meyer said.