23-Year Prison Term For Rape, Beating Of Highland Park Mom With Baby In Stroller

HIGHLAND PARK, NJ — The man convicted of raping and severely beating a 36-year-old Highland Park woman was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison for the crime, which stunned Highland Park when it happened this past winter. The woman was out walking with her baby in a stroller when she was attacked.

Brandon Cox, 23, of the Somerset section of Franklin Township was sentenced to serve the 23-year term in a New Jersey state prison subject to the No Early Release Act. As such, Cox will have to serve 85 percent of the term before he can be released on parole. He was initially charged with attempted murder in the heinous crime.

The attack occurred in daylight hours on an unseasonably balmy, springlike day in February of this year, the day before President's Day Monday: At 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017, the woman was walking with her baby in a stroller on Harper Avenue. Cox grabbed her as she was walking, showed her a gun and dragged her into the basement of a nearby apartment building, where he punched her repeatedly and then raped her. The woman's baby was unharmed, and the woman escaped, running to a neighbor's home on Harper Avenue and pounding on the door. Her face was covered in blood and both she and the child were brought to a nearby hospital.

Related: Highland Park On Edge After Sex Assault in Town

Cox fled from the scene. He was arrested just days later, on Feb. 27. He reached a plea deal with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Allysa Gambarella, where he admitted kidnapping the victim’s child, and then sexually assaulting and beating the mother. Related: Man Accused of Highland Park Rape Charged With Sex Assault In Past

Cox has been charged with sex crimes before: He was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2014 in Franklin Township. As Patch reported at the time, the alleged sex assaults happened over an extended period of time and occurred while Cox was living in South Brunswick. Cox was 20 at the time. The victim, accompanied by her mother, told Franklin police that between March 2013 and April 2014, Cox threatened her into sexual situations on four separate occasions. All the alleged sex assaults happened at her Franklin Township home. As part of a deal he made with the Somerset County prosecutor's office, Cox pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse and neglect. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail; however, he had already served much of that time while being held awaiting trial. He was released from the Somerset County jail on Aug. 2, 2016, having served close to 15 months of his 18-month sentence.

His 2014 mugshot was released by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office and can be seen here:

After the Highland Park sex assault, he was ordered to register as a Megan’s Law sex offender and will be placed on parole supervision for life upon his release from prison.

Cox was arrested and charged during an intensive investigation by Detective Sean McGraw of the Highland Park Police Department and Detective Allie Bitterman of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. He was intially charged with counts of kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, armed robbery, burglary, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering the welfare of a child and endangering an injured victim.