Gwinnett Man Sentenced for Raping, Robbing Women in 2013

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A Gwinnett County man was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for raping and robbing women he solicited from an online escort service in 2013.

The Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office said Joseph Sivonda was found guilty on June 18 of two counts of rape, three counts of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated sodomy stemming from incidents in April 2013.

• Related: Police Nab Norcross Man Wanted on Rape, Sodomy Charges

Prosecutors said on two consecutive nights, Sivonda solicited escorting services from the website backpage.com. When the woman arrived at an apartment at Bradford Gwinnett Apartments near Norcross, he sexually assaulted and robbed them at gunpoint.

“After developing the Defendant as a suspect through an extensive investigation into the phone number used to contact the two victims, officers found additional evidence that lead them to a third victim, who had been sexually assaulted and robbed a few weeks earlier, but who had been too frightened to come forward,” the DA’s Office said in a news release. “Key evidence in the case included phone records used to identify the Defendant, DNA evidence obtained from one of the women who had been sexually assaulted, fingerprints, and the eyewitness identification of the Defendant by the three women in court.”

The case was presented to the jury by Assistant District Attorney Frank Clark.

Photo: Joseph Sivonda; Gwinnett County jail mug shot