04/05/2014
Illegal Immigrant sentenced for series of sex assaults in Englewood, Dumont area
A Bergenfield day laborer, who spread fear across several Bergen County towns in the summer of 2012, was sentenced Friday to 18½ years in state prison for a spate of assaults on women, including a mother walking with her child.
Alexis Sanchez-Medina, 23, a native of Honduras who was in the United States illegally, “terrorized” Englewood, Dumont and surrounding towns with attacks on four women during a two-week crime spree, said Kristin DeMarco, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor.
“It’s the epitome of the stranger down a dark alley jumping out to rape a victim,” she told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma during a hearing in Hackensack.
From July 27 to Aug. 10, 2012, the assailant stalked, assaulted or attempted to sexually assault four women as they were going to or coming from their homes, the prosecutor said.
The first victim was walking in Englewood with her small son when a man grabbed her buttocks and knocked her to the ground. She later told police she had gotten a clear look at her assailant as he circled her on a bicycle. She picked Sanchez-Medina’s picture out of a photo lineup, enabling investigators to tie him to the subsequent attacks, the prosecutor said.
Another victim stepped outside her home in Englewood to investigate sounds coming from her air conditioner and was thrown to the ground by a man who put his hand down her pants, the prosecutor said.
The next two attacks occurred on the same day in Dumont. One woman was grabbed as she walked to her home and was able to break free; the other was returning to her apartment after throwing out her garbage when she was grabbed from behind, thrown to the ground and sexually assaulted.
The victims all suffered emotional trauma, DeMarco said. Three of them did not wish to appear in court for the sentencing, though all testified at Sanchez-Medina’s trial.
The victim who chose to give a statement told the judge that the assault by Sanchez-Medina had “greatly affected” her life.
She has trouble sleeping, has experienced “flashbacks” of the attack, and feels “sick to my stomach” when she walks past that part of her home, she said.
“People like this man should not be able to commit these crimes and get away with it,” she said, urging the judge to impose the maximum term.
Sanchez-Medina “came to this country to seek a better life” and worked as a day laborer and for a moving company, said public defender Gayle Hargrove, who asked the judge not to impose consecutive terms on his six counts of conviction and to cap his sentence at 11½ years.
Heavily shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, the defendant apologized for his crimes and the suffering he caused, and said he was prepared to face the consequences.
Saying the crimes called for harsh punishment, Roma sentenced him to consecutive terms, remarking that it would be an insult to the victims to treat the offenses as one instance of aberrant behavior.
source
Illegal Immigrant sentenced for series of sex assaults in Englewood, Dumont area
A Bergenfield day laborer, who spread fear across several Bergen County towns in the summer of 2012, was sentenced Friday to 18½ years in state prison for a spate of assaults on women, including a mother walking with her child.
Alexis Sanchez-Medina, 23, a native of Honduras who was in the United States illegally, “terrorized” Englewood, Dumont and surrounding towns with attacks on four women during a two-week crime spree, said Kristin DeMarco, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor.
“It’s the epitome of the stranger down a dark alley jumping out to rape a victim,” she told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma during a hearing in Hackensack.
From July 27 to Aug. 10, 2012, the assailant stalked, assaulted or attempted to sexually assault four women as they were going to or coming from their homes, the prosecutor said.
The first victim was walking in Englewood with her small son when a man grabbed her buttocks and knocked her to the ground. She later told police she had gotten a clear look at her assailant as he circled her on a bicycle. She picked Sanchez-Medina’s picture out of a photo lineup, enabling investigators to tie him to the subsequent attacks, the prosecutor said.
Another victim stepped outside her home in Englewood to investigate sounds coming from her air conditioner and was thrown to the ground by a man who put his hand down her pants, the prosecutor said.
The next two attacks occurred on the same day in Dumont. One woman was grabbed as she walked to her home and was able to break free; the other was returning to her apartment after throwing out her garbage when she was grabbed from behind, thrown to the ground and sexually assaulted.
The victims all suffered emotional trauma, DeMarco said. Three of them did not wish to appear in court for the sentencing, though all testified at Sanchez-Medina’s trial.
The victim who chose to give a statement told the judge that the assault by Sanchez-Medina had “greatly affected” her life.
She has trouble sleeping, has experienced “flashbacks” of the attack, and feels “sick to my stomach” when she walks past that part of her home, she said.
“People like this man should not be able to commit these crimes and get away with it,” she said, urging the judge to impose the maximum term.
Sanchez-Medina “came to this country to seek a better life” and worked as a day laborer and for a moving company, said public defender Gayle Hargrove, who asked the judge not to impose consecutive terms on his six counts of conviction and to cap his sentence at 11½ years.
Heavily shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, the defendant apologized for his crimes and the suffering he caused, and said he was prepared to face the consequences.
Saying the crimes called for harsh punishment, Roma sentenced him to consecutive terms, remarking that it would be an insult to the victims to treat the offenses as one instance of aberrant behavior.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment