A registered sex offender accused of raping a woman at a Manhattan construction site in late 2021 was found guilty of sexual abuse and sexual assault charges on Monday.
Darryl Phelps, 62, was convicted of two counts of predatory sexual assault — a class A-II felony, based on his 1998 conviction for attempted rape in the first degree — and one count of sexual abuse in the first degree, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news release.
The incident occurred at around 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2021.
The victim, a 23-year-old waiter in Koreatown, was walking home from work when Phelps hit her with a hard object and knocked her to the ground.
He then punched the victim repeatedly, threatening to kill her if she made noise or tried to call the police. Afterward, he removed her pants, held her in a chokehold and began sexually assaulting her.
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“I want you to have my baby,” Phelps told the victim. A food delivery driver witnessed the attack and called 911.
Phelps was still raping the victim when the officers arrived.
He was immediately arrested while the victim was taken to a hospital with a bruised eye.
The victim, who was in New York on a student visa, did not return to the U.S. to testify. Evidence presented to the court included bodycam footage and testimony from the eyewitness and other individuals the victim had contacted right after the attack.
According to Bragg, the jury found Phelps guilty in less than an hour of deliberations.
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. 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. I thank our prosecutors for their compassion, and for their dedication to pursuing accountability.
