Tuesday, January 11, 2005

D.A. BROWN: NEW JERSEY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO RAPE IN 1997 ATTACK ON ASTORIA WOMAN; APPREHENDED AND PROSECUTED AS RESULT OF DNA “COLD HIT;” FACES 12 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a New Jersey man has pled guilty to raping a woman in Astoria in 1997 and faces a determinate 12-year prison sentence later this month.

According to the District Attorney, the defendant was apprehended and is being prosecuted as a result of a “cold hit” in which a DNA sample obtained from the victim’s rape kit was positively matched to the defendant’s DNA profile in the New York DNA Databank.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted his guilt, waived his right to appeal and acknowledged that he forcibly raped the victim, a woman returning home from work who was attacked in the vestibule of her apartment building. The use of DNA is an important law enforcement tool that protects the innocent and punishes the guilty.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Kevin White, 34, of 2301 New York Avenue in Union City, New Jersey, no known employment. The defendant yesterday pled guilty to Rape in the First Degree and admitted that he forcibly raped the victim before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron who indicated that on January 25, 2005 he would impose on him a determinate sentence of 12 years in prison.

The defendant’s DNA profile was placed on file in the state’s DNA Databank as a result of his arrest last year in Manhattan in a series of sexual attacks.

District Attorney Brown said that according to the criminal charges the defendant on June 22, 1997 in Astoria, Queens attacked the victim, a then 33-year-old woman, as she was returning home from work. The defendant grabbed the victim from behind as she was entering her apartment building entrance and sexually assaulted her in the vestibule before fleeing on foot. The victim was treated at a local hospital where a rape kit was prepared and filed.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Frank P. DeGaetano, Supervisor, of the District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief, and Kenneth M. Appelbaum and Lucinda C. Suarez, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and Eric C. Rosenbaum, Chief, DNA Prosecution Unit, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.