By Courtney Dentch
A Jamaica man serving a prison sentence for raping two young women pleaded guilty last Thursday to a third sexual assault in Maspeth after DNA evidence linked him to the victim, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Vincent Elias, 33, formerly of 88-15 179th St., admitted he raped a 16-year-old inside her Maspeth home nearly seven years ago in a plea bargain agreement with the district attorney, Brown said.
The guilty plea came after the girl, now married with two children and living in North Carolina, fought to get people, including her parents and the police, to believe her, the Daily News reported. The girl, who was attacked on her 16th birthday, was two weeks pregnant by her boyfriend at the time, and authorities believed she was making up the story about the rape as a cover, the paper said.
But DNA taken from the girl after the attack eventually linked Elias to the attack, and he pleaded guilty last week, Brown said.
Judge Barry Kron, who accepted the plea in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens last Thursday, was expected to sentence him to 22 years in prison, on top of the 15 years he is serving for other rapes, the DA said.
“The defendant’s guilty plea was a direct result of an ongoing initiative involving unsolved rape cases in which convicted sex offenders are required to submit their DNA,” Brown said in a statement. “Faced with irrefutable proof of his guilt, the defendant accepted his fate. I hope that the victim receives a measure of solace knowing her attacker has now been apprehended, convicted and faces a long prison sentence.”
Elias told the court he followed the girl, a high school student, home about 5:40 p.m. on March 26, 1997, Brown said. He entered the house through an unlocked door and overpowered the girl, taking the knife she had grabbed to defend herself, the DA said. Elias followed the girl as she fled to the basement and raped her.
Elias was linked to the crime through a DNA sample he was required to give after he pleaded guilty in 1999 to raping two 18-year-old women in Jamaica and Flushing, Brown said. Elias was serving a 15-year sentence for those rapes when he was charged in the attack on the Maspeth teen, the DA said.
Elias was scheduled to be sentenced in the 1997 rape Friday, exactly seven years after the attack. He was expected to get another 22 years in prison, Brown said.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
