A Long Island man has been indicted on charges that he broke into an elderly woman’s Holbrook apartment and sexually assaulted her, officials said Friday.
Jawarren Booker, 29, of Ridge, was arrested Oct. 28, just days after the alleged assault.
He’s accused of entering the 74-year-old woman’s apartment through a window in the early morning of Oct. 24 before physically and sexually assaulting her, according to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, who described the incident as a crime that can “cause you to question your faith in humanity.”
On Friday, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced Booker was indicted on first-degree burglary and first-degree rape charges, both violent felonies, in connection with the “absolutely appalling crime.”
Prosecutors said the victim, who lives alone, heard a noise in her bedroom sometime between 6:15 and 7:15 a.m. and went to investigate. That’s when she allegedly saw a man dressed in all black, with only his eyes visible.
The man then “took her forcibly to her bed and violently raped her,” authorities said. Before fleeing through the same window he used to enter the apartment, the suspect allegedly warned her to not call police or tell anyone what happened.
The victim, however, immediately contacted her neighbors, who called 911. She was taken to a nearby hospital for a forensic sexual assault exam and to be treated for injuries she sustained in the attack.
Booker, who’d been living in the same Holbrook apartment complex but is not believed to have known the victim, was arrested in the Bronx following an “extensive investigation and search,” police said.
He was arraigned on the indictment Wednesday and ordered held without bail, according to online court records.
Booker is due back in court Nov. 19. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
