Jose Nuñez-Garcia, 29, facing up to 25 years in prison for 2014 rape
MINEOLA, N.Y. – Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said that a New Cassel man was convicted by a jury today of all but one count against him for the rape of a 28-year-old woman he didn’t know on a residential street in New Cassel in 2014.
Jose Nuñez-Garcia, 29, a native of Honduras who had been living in New Cassel at the time of the incident, was convicted today of Rape in the 1st Degree (a B violent felony), Rape in the 3rd Degree (an E felony) and Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree (a D violent felony). The jury deliberated approximately two days after a month-long trial presided over by Acting Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty. The defendant was acquitted of Resisting Arrest (an A misdemeanor). He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender upon his release. He is due back in court for sentencing on Jan. 7, 2016.
“This defendant raped a young woman, a complete stranger, in a terrifying attack on a residential street last year,” Acting DA Singas said. “I’m grateful to the police officers who apprehended this defendant and to the jury for its month of service and careful consideration in this case.”
Acting DA Singas said that Nuñez-Garcia was arrested by the NCPD 3rd Squad on April 27, 2014 after he raped a 28-year-old woman he didn’t know on a residential street in New Cassel at approximately 4:40 in the morning that day. The woman had been walking to the home of a relative when the defendant began following her. When the woman began to walk past an empty lot, the defendant knocked her to the ground and raped her. He was apprehended by another person who was on the street a few houses away and saw the woman run from the lot, half naked and crying for help, followed by the defendant who then fled in the opposite direction.
When questioned by the NCPD Special Victims Squad after his arrest, Nuñez-Garcia admitted to raping the woman, claiming that the “devil got into me.” He said that he saw the woman walking on the street and began to follow her. He said “I lost my mind” and then raped her. At trial, Nuñez-Garcia’s attorney claimed that the police made up the defendant’s confession and that the woman fabricated the claim of rape and, rather, had consented to have sex with Nuñez-Garcia in the empty lot.
The woman suffered multiple abrasions, lacerations and bruises as a result of the attack that occurred in an area covered in debris, mud and broken glass. She has since recovered from her physical injuries.
Assistant District Attorney D.J. Rosenbaum of Acting DA Singas’ Special Victims Bureau is prosecuting the case. Nuñez-Garcia was represented at trial by Michael Berger, Esq.