15 years for L.E.S. rapist
The man who pleaded guilty to raping and robbing a 28-year-old-woman on the Lower East Side in 1998 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced on Mon., Oct. 23.
Lerio Guerrero, 33, pleaded guilty on Oct. 9 to all counts of the indictment: rape, sodomy, burglary, robbery and attempted robbery, all in the first degree.
According to court documents, on Nov. 8, 1998, Guerrero followed the victim to her Orchard St. apartment, pushed open the building door behind her and threatened her with a piece of broken glass. He then forced the woman to the rear of the building, where he sexually assaulted her and stole her wallet. After that, he forced her to follow him to an A.T.M. to withdraw cash. But when Guerrero tried to make the woman go to an A.T.M. at a different location to withdraw more cash, she escaped into a deli.
Guerrero was not arrested for the crime until 2011, when he left DNA on a cigarette butt while smoking in a Police Department interrogation room as he was being questioned about a different incident, according to The New York Times. The DNA was linked to blood he had left on his victim’s coat after slicing his hand on the night of the 1998 crime.
Coat Factory cash snatch
Since opening a month ago, the new flagship Burlington Coat Factory in Union Square has already had the honor of hosting at least one unsuccessful thief.
Officers arrested Rosemary Uhuwmangho, 44, in the discount clothing store at 40 E. 14th St. on Tues., Oct. 16, after she couldn’t resist snatching $750 from an unattended purse.
The bag was originally lost by a 37-year-old woman, who left it sitting on a shoe display before a vigilant security guard took it out of sight and brought it to his desk until she returned. But when the woman ended up picking up the purse shortly after, instead of finding it untouched, she bemoaned the fact that, of the $1,400 in cash she said she’d been carrying, only $650 remained.
Burlington’s staff quickly investigated the matter and spotted Uhuwmangho on a surveillance video, swiping the missing cash from the purse before replacing it on the security counter. The security guards found her wandering the store minutes later, and detained her until police could arrive and bust her for grand larceny.
Armed Benz carjacking
Police are hunting for three thugs who held up a man at gunpoint in Soho and stole his $50,000 Mercedes-Benz early on Sun., Oct. 21.
The victim, 28, from Valley Cottage in Rockland County, left his car, a 2009 C6A model, running at the corner of Varick and Vandam Sts. while he stood next to it and smoked a cigarette around 3:30 a.m., police said. Then three men — each described only as black Hispanic — approached him, and one brandished a silver handgun and said, “Back the f— up.”
When the car’s owner complied, the trio jumped into the Benz and drove north on Sixth Ave., police said. The man flagged down a cab and tried following his stolen car as it sped away, but he gave up after losing sight of the criminals near the corner of W. 18th St. and Sixth Ave.
Officers from the 13th and First Precincts canvassed the area for the stolen Benz and the thugs without success.
Ex-cop to be a convict
A former New York Police Department officer will do 15½ years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing four handguns from the East Village’s Ninth Precinct and selling them to a Queens drug ring in order to fund his addiction to painkillers.
Nicholas Mina, 31, was arrested in July after investigators wiretapped him and caught him talking about taking more guns to sell. He had been a police officer for 4½ years.
All four of the guns Mina stole — two Glock 19 9-millimeters, a Glock 26 9-millimeter and a Smith & Wesson 5946 — were loaded, according to the court records.
He will be sentenced on Nov. 7.
Picked wrong purse
A West Village purse thief got more than he bargained for when his victim refused to let go of the goods, leading to a struggle that ended with the crook in cuffs.
Michael Williams, 50, snuck up on a 24-year-old woman as she was entering her 455 Hudson St. apartment building around 4:15 a.m. on Sat., Oct. 20, and tried grabbing her bag. But the woman held on, even as Williams dragged her across the street, leaving her with scraped knees and a bruised finger.
Worse for Williams was that, as the commotion continued, cops caught wind of the noise and quickly arrived on the scene to arrest him for robbery. And after patting him down, the officers also busted him for a crack pipe they reportedly found in his pocket.
Dead woman on E. 7th
A dead woman was found in a vacant lot on E. Seventh St. on the morning of Wed., Oct. 24, police said.
Police arrived at the 227 E. Seventh St. lot, between Avenues B and C, shortly after 10 a.m. to find the body of the woman, who they believe was in her 30s, which was reportedly spotted by local residents around 9 a.m.
It was not immediately clear how the woman died, and an investigation into possible criminal activity is ongoing, police said.
Union Square fatal leap
A 57-year-old woman died on Mon., Oct. 22 after she jumped from the eighth floor of a building in Union Square and struck the sidewalk below.
Erika Kobald, a resident of Stuyvesant Town, was immediately pronounced dead after she leaped from the building at the corner of University Place and E. 13th St. shortly before noon, police said.
Bagel burglar bagged
Police have caught the teenager who broke into an East Village bagel shop on Tues., Oct. 16, and swiped a laptop and other property.
Christopher Lyles, 18, was arrested this past Thursday and charged with burglary, police said. He was identified after being caught on surveillance video at Tompkins Square Bagels, on Avenue A near E. 10th St., when he entered the shop’s basement around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 and stole the items before fleeing.
While burglarizing the basement, Lyles reportedly tricked a bagel shop employee into thinking he was city inspector. Police have also linked him to 10 other thefts in the East Village.
Wasn’t so easy, dude
A middle-aged graffiti artist was nabbed on Wed., Oct. 17, after he tagged a West Village bar, but his partner in paint slipped away.
Callejas Harrison, 49, was charged with criminal mischief after cops caught him and the friend spray painting “dude” and “easy” on the front of the eponymous bar at 49 Grove St. around 1:30 a.m. Since officers only responded after an employee of the bar reported the graffiti in progress, the unidentified perpetrator was able to flee the scene while Harrison was taking the rap.
—Sam Spokony
