NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A registered sex offender has been found guilty of raping a 23-year-old woman in 2021 as she walked home from work in a Manhattan sidewalk shed.
A New York State Supreme Court jury found Darryl Phelps, 62, guilty on two counts of predatory sexual assault — a class A-II felony based on his 1998 conviction for first-degree attempted rape — and one count of first-degree sexual abuse, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Monday.
Prosecutors said Phelps attacked the woman on Dec. 22, 2021, around 1:30 a.m., as she entered a sidewalk shed outside of a construction site while walking home from her waitressing job in Koreatown.
Phelps, a Level 2 registered sex offender, struck her with a hard object, knocking her to the ground, before punching her repeatedly and threatening to kill her if she made a noise or called the police.
Prosecutors said Phelps took off her pants, sexually assaulted her, and raped her while holding her down with one arm and wrapping the other around her neck. A nearby delivery driver called 911, and responding NYPD officers pulled Phelps off her and arrested him.
The Manhattan D.A.'s Sex Crimes Unit presented body-worn camera footage as well as testimony from an eyewitness and individuals the victim spoke to in the aftermath of the attack rather than testimony from the victim, who was in New York on a student visa and did not return to the United States after the incident.
"In less than an hour of deliberations, a jury of Darryl Phelps' peers found him guilty of brutally raping a young woman who was simply trying to walk home from work," Bragg said. "Notably, while this survivor did not return to the United States to testify, our prosecutors were able to secure this conviction using body-worn camera footage, eyewitness testimony, and other evidence."
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