Photo Courtesy of DA Katz
DA Katz said she sincerely hopes “that the victim takes some solace knowing her attacker has been sentenced to prison for his actions.”
By Forum Staff
A Georgia man has been sentenced to a decade in prison for dragging a woman into a dark Jamaica alley and raping her 2020, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Friday.
Rony Lopez Alvarez, 39, pleaded guilty last month to rape in the first degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant. Pandit-Durant sentenced Lopez Alvarez to 10 years in prison to be followed by five years’ post-release supervision.
According to court records, on Jan. 18, 2020, at approximately 4 a.m., Lopez Alvarez grabbed a 27-year-old woman as she walked on Jamaica Avenue. Lopez Alvarez put his hand over the victim’s mouth, wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed a sharp object against her body. He then forced her into an alley and told her he would “snap her neck” if she screamed for help.
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia/Zaid Hamid
Lopez Alvarez will spend the next 10 years behind bars.
Continuing, the DA said, Lopez Alvarez pulled the victim toward the back of the dark alley where he removed some of her clothes and raped her. Afterward, Lopez Alvarez fled the area. The woman 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 administered to collect DNA evidence. A DNA profile was developed from the forensic evidence found in the rape kit, and after an investigation was conducted, a DNA match was discovered.
Lopez Alvarez fled NY but was caught in Forest Park, Ga., and brought back to Queens to face justice.
“The trauma cannot be undone,” Katz said, “but I sincerely hope that the victim takes some solace knowing her attacker has been sentenced to prison for his actions.”
