‘Cold Hit': Rapist gets 24 years

A Queens man who pleaded guilty to burglarizing and sexually assaulting two women in Ridgewood five years ago has been sentenced to 24 years in a state prison.
His apprehension and prosecution were a result of a DNA backlog project and a subsequent &#8220cold hit” in which a DNA sample obtained from the rape kit of one of the victims was positively matched to the defendant's DNA profile in the New York DNA Databank.
&#8220The defendant admitted that he sexually attacked the two victims - a fact corroborated by the DNA evidence that he left at the scenes,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. &#8220The lengthy prison sentence imposed by the court is just and fits the crimes. However, as the two women noted at sentencing, the defendant's crime will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”
The defendant has been identified as John Vega, 29, whose last known address was 60-08 Cooper Avenue in Ridgewood.
Vega pleaded guilty on September 12 to the entire six-count indictment pending against him (one count of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of second-degree burglary and one count of first-degree criminal use of a firearm) before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron, who imposed the sentence of 24 years in prison.
According to the charges, Vega, armed with a loaded gun, broke into the place of business of a 38-year-old woman on January 9, 2001 and raped and sodomized her.
Four months later, on May 15, 2001, the defendant broke into the home of a 21-year-old woman and sodomized her.
The defendant was linked to the crime 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.
The defendant was arrested on February 28, 2006, by New York City Police Department Special Victims Squad detectives.