Rodrigo Escamilla, 28, has pleaded guilty to criminal sex act for the 2019 attack on a 74-year-old Queens woman that took place inside the victim’s Corona apartment.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, “The defendant viciously violated an elderly woman in a place that is supposed to be her safe place of refuge. Those who prey on members of our elderly community will be held accountable by my Office. The defendant has now admitted guilt for his criminal actions and faces a lengthy prison term at sentencing.”
Escamilla, of 104th Street in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal sexual act in the first degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant. Justice Pandit-Durant indicated that she will impose a sentence of 15 years in prison to be followed by 20 years’ post release supervision and ordered Escamilla to return to Court on May 27, 2022. The defendant will also be required to register as a sex offender at the time of his release.
DA Katz said, on July 17, 2019, between midnight and 1 am, the defendant knocked at the apartment door of the 74-year-old woman. When the victim opened the door, the defendant forced his way into the apartment. Once inside her home, the defendant struck the woman in the head with a bottle and dragged her into a bedroom where he held her down and sexually assaulted her.
Furthermore, said DA Katz, surveillance video obtained by the NYPD showed the defendant follow the victim into her building’s lobby and showed him later approach her apartment door.
The victim was treated at a local Queens hospital for her injuries and required multiple staples to her head.
Assistant District Attorney Kasey Esposito, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Eric C. Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief, Debra Lynn Pomodore and Brian Hughes, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
