‘East Coast Rapist’ Adds Two Life Terms to Sentence

Nearly 12 years have passed since Aaron Hijjmalike Thomas forced a Leesburg woman into a back bedroom of her apartment where he bound, gagged and sexually assaulted her. The rest of Thomas’ years will pass behind prison bars.

Loudoun Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne sentenced Thomas Friday to two life terms in prison for the rape and abduction with the intent to defile charges to which Thomas, 41, pleaded guilty in November.

After Thomas was arrested and DNA connected him to multiple cases that had been attributed to the “East Coast Serial Rapist.” When a Leesburg Police detective interviewed Thomas, he admitted involvement in the Leesburg assault.

Thomas might be charged in other jurisdictions as well.

The Leesburg victim testified during Thomas’ sentencing hearing and described the physical and emotional impact of the crime.

Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman asked Horne to impose a sentence that would help the victim to put the incident behind her.

According to a press release from Plowman’s office, Judge Horne told Thomas, his crime in Leesburg “was the same as if he had taken a knife and driven it right through her heart, but instead he drove it through her soul.”

Thomas previously was sentenced to three life terms, plus 80 years in March 2013 for the 2009 attack of three trick-or-treaters in Prince William County back in 2009. The two life sentences imposed in Loudoun will run consecutively to each other and to any sentences imposed in other jurisdictions.