A Georgia man will spend a decade behind bars after he admitted raping a woman in a Jamaica alley in 2020, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Rony Lopez Alvarez, 39, was sentenced Friday morning to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to rape in the first degree earlier this month before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant.
According to court records, at around 4 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2020, Lopez Alvarez grabbed a 27-year-old woman as she walked past shops on a commercial strip along Jamaica Avenue. He put his hand over the victim’s mouth, wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed a hard object against her body. Lopez Alvarez then forced her into an alley between the shops and told her he would “snap her neck” if she screamed for help.
The defendant pulled the victim toward the back of the dark alley where he removed some of her clothes and raped her. Lopez Alvarez fled the area. The victim was able to walk out of the alley and flag down a passerby who called 911 for her.
The victim was taken to an area hospital where she was treated and a rape kit was used to collect DNA evidence. A DNA profile was developed from the DNA evidence found in the rape kit and, after an investigation was conducted, a DNA match was discovered. Lopez Alvarez was tracked down more than a year after the attack in his hometown of Forest Park, Georgia, and transported back to Queens in June 2021.
“We will not relent in our efforts to bring justice on behalf of victims,” Katz said. “For more than a year, we continued our investigation in search of the defendant — who fled the state but was extradited back to face charges and pleaded guilty to this heinous crime last month. The trauma cannot be undone, but I sincerely hope that the victim takes some solace knowing her attacker has been sentenced to prison for his actions.”
Justice Pandit-Durant sentenced Lopez Alvarez to ten years in prison, to be followed by five years post-release supervision. Lopez Alvarez will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
