FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 2, 2018
Brooklyn Man Convicted of Breaking into Apartment and Sexually Assaulting Bushwick Woman Who Previously Hired Him to Clean Her Apartment
Defendant Faces Up To Life in Prison at Sentencing
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 22-year-old Brooklyn man has been convicted of predatory sexual assault and related charges for a 2016 attack on a woman after breaking into her Bushwick apartment while she was sleeping.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This is an incredibly disturbing incident in which the defendant broke into a woman’s home and committed a horrific assault. He’s now been held accountable. I am committed to fighting for justice for all sexual assault victims.”
The District Attorney said that the defendant, Romaric Guiebre, 22, of Brooklyn, was convicted yesterday of one count of predatory sexual assault, one count of first-degree sexual abuse, one count of first-degree burglary as a sexually motivated felony, second-degree robbery as a sexually motivated felony, and other charges, following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dena Douglas. Justice Douglas set sentencing for December 13, 2018, at which time the defendant faces 25 years to life in prison.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on July 25, 2016, at approximately 1:30 a.m., on DeKalb Avenue in Bushwick, the victim, a 29-year-old woman, was sleeping in her apartment when she heard a key in her front door. When she went to investigate, she saw the defendant in the apartment. She screamed, and the defendant grabbed her around the neck and pushed her into the apartment bedroom; he then pulled out a gun and stated: “I’m going to kill you.”
A struggle ensued, according to trial testimony, and the victim bit the defendant on the nose, causing him to bleed profusely. He then tied her up and blindfolded her with a bedsheet, sexually assaulted her and made her take a shower. During the assault he demanded money, taking her debit card and PIN number. Before leaving the apartment, he gathered the bedding and other items that had blood on them and put them in a garbage bag and left the apartment at approximately 4 a.m. Blood was recovered from the scene.
The defendant told the woman not to call police or he would kill her. He left and withdrew $400 from her bank account. The woman called her boyfriend, who called police.
The defendant, who worked as a house cleaner, cleaned the woman’s apartment on July 17, 2016 and it is believed he used a spare key to break into her apartment the night of the attack.
Investigators questioned the defendant because he had been in the apartment prior to the attack to provide a cleaning service. Following an investigation, he was arrested on August 23, 2016. The defendant admitted being in the woman’s apartment the night of the attack, tying her up and using her ATM card to withdraw money from her account, the evidence showed. Blood found in the apartment was a match to his DNA.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorneys Lauren Silver and Gwen Barnes of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano, First Deputy Chief and Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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