16-Year-Old Indicted on Sexual Assault Charges

Mount Vernon resident Javon Roberts, 16, was indicted today in connection with the sexual assaults of an 11-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman, Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced.

“The brutal and violent acts this defendant perpetrated against these two victims, one an 11 year old girl, belie the courage displayed by these women in coming forward, said DiFiore in a statement. “Additionally, excellent detective work and forensic analysis led to this defendant being held accountable for the depraved crimes he committed.”

Roberts was charged with:

• one count of Rape in the First Degree, a class “B” Felony,
• one count of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, a class “B” Felony,

According to DiFiore, the first attack, on the 23-year-old, occurred in the evening of October, 2014, when Roberts abducted a 23-year-old female walking home from work in Mount Vernon.

“Placing a knife to her throat he attempted to rape her but then determining that they were too exposed at their current location, forced her to come with him to the Grimes Elementary School Building located at 58 South 10th Street,” according to DiFiore, who added that Roberts then forced his victim to perform oral sex on him and then forcibly anally sodomized her multiple times.

At the conclusion of the attack, the defendant walked the victim to the corner and let her leave. She immediately notified police who then attempted to locate the defendant to no avail.

In the second attack, which occurred in December of same year, Roberts abducted an 11-year-old girl as she was walking home from an evening Christmas concert at a local library in Mount Vernon. He once again took his victim to the grounds of the Grimes Elementary School. In a stairwell adjacent to the playground, the defendant pulled out a knife and forced the child to perform oral sex on him whereupon he also raped and anally sodomized her multiple times.

When the child screamed in pain, the defendant said “Shut up or I will kill you”. The entire attack went on for approximately two hours.

The girl was eventually let go, but police had no leads. Later, police interviewed Roberts on an unrelated investigation, and the water bottle he drank from was handed over to the Westchester County Crime lab. Forensics was able to link the defendant to the two sexual attacks, according to DiFiore.

Roberts remains in custody under remand, and he is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Although Roberts is being tried in Criminal Court as he was less than 16 years old at the time of the crimes, the defendant is considered a juvenile offender, thus he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to DiFiore.

Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lopez, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Sex Crimes Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Mary Clark-DiRusso of the Child Abuse Bureau are prosecuting the case.

Photo: Javon Roberts. Photo credit: Westchester County District Attorney’s office