‘Cold Hit’ IDs man as rapist

A Queens man has pleaded guilty to raping a 34-year-old woman in the Astoria laundromat where she worked.
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that the defendant’s apprehension and successful prosecution were the 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.
Brown said, “Faced with conclusive and irrefutable scientific proof that established his guilt, the defendant had no choice but to accept his fate. The use of DNA is an important law enforcement tool that protects the innocent and punishes the guilty. I hope that the victim receives a measure of solace knowing that her attacker has now been convicted and faces a long prison sentence.”
The defendant has been identified as Jose Fuentes, 26, of 30-72 37th Street in Maspeth. Fuentes pleaded guilty to rape in the first degree before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Joel Blumenfeld who indicated that he would sentence the defendant to up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on March 9.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, the defendant raped and viciously beat the victim in her place of business on September 1, 2002. The attack resulted in substantial injuries to her face and bruising over her entire body and required a lengthy hospitalization.
The defendant was identified in 2004 when he was required to provide a DNA specimen to the New York State DNA Index System as a result of an attempted robbery conviction.