Man convicted in rape of sister-in-law, 14

A 36-year-old Florida man has been convicted of sexually abusing his sister-in-law in her Queens home starting when she was nine years old and culminating in a rape when she was 14.
“The victim was only a child, a member of the defendant’s own family, when he first began subjecting her to what would become a five-year nightmare of sexual abuse,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “This young woman is to be commended for coming forward and confronting her attacker at trial. She testified with dignity and grace during her time on the witness stand. The defendant changed her life forever beginning eight years ago, and hopefully this conviction provides her with some small measure of help in overcoming the trauma she experienced during his assaults on her.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Luis Gomez, 36, formerly of Kissimmee, Florida.
Gomez was found guilty by a jury of second-degree rape, second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Aloise, who presided at the one-week trial, set sentencing for September 27, at which time he faces up to seven years in prison.
The defendant, who had been held in jail on $500,000 bail since his arrest in December 2006, was ordered remanded.
According to trial testimony, Gomez sexually abused his sister-in-law on more than two occasions between November 10, 1998, and May 31, 1999, before sexually abusing and raping her sometime between November 26, 2003, and November 31, 2003.