Monday, January 10, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR BRUTAL ATTACK OF GIRLFRIEND’S SISTER WHOM HE RAPED, CHOKED AND BURNED WITH AMMONIA-SOAKED RAG

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Queens man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping his girlfriend’s younger sister in a Corona apartment during a savage attack in which he choked the victim with an ammonia soaked rag severely burning her face and leaving her scarred.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant committed a particularly vicious and brutal crime in which he attacked and raped his girlfriend’s sister, a Mexican immigrant, who sustained serious chemical burns to her face and suffered respiratory failure. She will bear physical and emotional scars for the rest of her life and the term of imprisonment is more than warranted.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Juan Rojas Morales, 37, of Corona, Queens. The defendant pled guilty on December 22, 2004 to Rape in the First Degree before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Grosso who earlier today imposed the determinate sentence of 15 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that on September 17, 2003 inside the victim’s residence he raped the victim, his girlfriend’s younger sister who had immigrated from Mexico in search of opportunity, employment and a better life. During the attack the defendant grabbed the victim from behind, placed an ammonia soaked rag on her mouth and nose and choked her. The defendant stripped the victim, tied her hands with a rag and placed a gag in her mouth causing her to sustain second degree burns to her entire face and respiratory failure.

According to the District Attorney, the defendant phoned 911 about four hours after the attack when other family members returned home, admitting his culpability in the attack. The defendant was arrested at the apartment by Police Officer Christine Nolan of the New York City Police Department’s 115th Precinct Domestic Violence Unit.

Assistant District Attorney Donna Marie Golia of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief, Kenneth M. Appelbaum and Lucinda C. Suarez, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District for Major Crimes Attorney Daniel A. Saunders.