A 64-year-old rape victim in East Harlem, New York, died May 27 following a violent attack days before that put her into a medically induced coma.
“38-year-old Frankie Harris has been arraigned on attempted murder, rape, strangulation and sex abuse charges. But now those charges are likely to be changed now that the incident has been deemed a homicide,” according to ABC 7.
The suspect, who was previously freed twice from jail under New York’s bail reform law, would undergo a psychiatric evaluation following his arrest, authorities said.
“Harris, who’s accused of spewing hateful remarks about Puerto Ricans in two earlier violent incidents, targeted 64-year-old Adalinda Delgado-Staiman on May 18, rolling up to her on a Citibike on E. 111th St. near Second Ave. and striking up a conversation,” the New York Daily News reported the day before Delgado-Staiman died.
The article continued:
He left, only to return a few moments later and choke her from behind, assistant district attorney Justin McNabney said Tuesday. He dragged her to the ground and choked her for three full minutes, until her legs stopped moving, the prosecutor said. He raped her, and left her in a pool of her own blood and feces, neighbors told the Daily News.
Harris allegedly stopped the attack and left the victim, then returned to continue the assault twice before leaving her “completely lifeless body on the pavement,” the prosecutor noted.
When detectives showed the suspect video footage of the incident, he changed his story several times.
At first, Harris claimed the sex was consensual, then denied raping her and said he was only on top of the victim to try and revive her. He also reportedly tried to blame an imaginary “Puerto Rican man” for the alleged crime.
Following the two earlier incidents when Harris reportedly slapped a random woman’s buttocks and attacked several people on a train platform, he was freed twice without bail, according to the New York Post.
“A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA’s office said none of the charges qualify for bail under the new bail reform laws,” the report said.
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