‘Don’t do anything stupid or I’ll kill you:’ Ozone Park man pleads guilty to gunpoint rape

Photo via Pixabay.

By Jonathan Sperling

An Ozone Park man who investigators say raped a woman at gunpoint while threatening to kill her has pleaded guilty, setting the stage for a potential 17-year prison sentence.

Police used DNA evidence to connect George Persaud, 24, with the December 2018 rape, in which the 40-year-old victiml narrowly escaped. Persaud pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree rape before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter. Buchter noted that he would sentence Persaud to 17 years in prison, followed by 15 years post release supervision on Oct. 3.

Persaud approached the woman on 93rd Street in Jamaica just before midnight and displayed what appeared to be a black firearm, before stating “Don’t do anything stupid or I’ll kill you.” He then proceeded to sexually assault her.

After pulling out the gun, Persaud forced the woman to a nearby gas station where he forced her to perform a sex act. At one point, Persaud seemed to let the woman leave, but as she moved away he followed her to her vehicle, forced her into the back of the car, forced her again to perform a sex act and raped her.

“In pleading guilty, the defendant has admitted to brutalizing a woman he encountered on the street shortly before midnight. He displayed what appeared to be a firearm, threatened to kill her and then repeatedly raped and sexually abused her for several hours,” Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan said in a statement. 

“It is my hope that the victim of this vicious crime will gain some solace in knowing this defendant will be locked away for a long time,” he added.

The woman managed to escape from Persaud after he drove the two of them to an alleyway on 100th Street and left the car to relieve himself. Persaud took the keys to the car and locked the victim inside, but the victim had a spare set in her purse and managed to drive away. Persaud’s fingerprints were later retrieved from the interior rear driver’s side window of the victim’s car.