Rape On Inwood Bridge Gets Man At Least 20 Years In Prison

INWOOD, NY — A man who pleaded guilty to violently robbing and raping a stranger on an Inwood bridge was sentenced to serve between 20 years and life in prison, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced.

Randy Rivera, 29, was sentenced Monday, prosecutors told Patch. In May, Rivera pleaded guilty to two counts of predatory sexual assault and one count of second-degree robbery as a sexually motivated felony.

On Dec. 21, 2015, Rivera ambushed a 60-year-old woman as she attempted to cross the 207th Street bridge in the early morning hours, prosecutors told Patch. Rivera grabbed the woman from behind as she walked to work, covered her face with her hood and the dragged her to an alcove on the bridge, prosecutors said.

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Rivera then repeatedly punched her in the head, sexually assaulted her and fled with her purse, prosecutors told Patch. The woman was sent to Harlem Hospital.

DNA recovered matched Rivera, who was known to police because he was a level three sex offender, prosecutors said. Rivera was arrested Jan. 30, 2016, the same day his DNA was matched to the crime, prosecutors told Patch.

"In this horrific stranger assault, Randy Rivera mercilessly beat, raped, and robbed a woman early one morning as she walked to work," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. "Now, he will serve a sentence worthy of this brutal crime."

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