The homeless man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a Manhattan apartment building was found cowering in a closet in upstate New York when cops zeroed in on his location, prosecutors said Thursday.
Germaine Parham was still wearing the camouflage pants he wore in the attack when cops grabbed him Tuesday morning. He also had the backpack he was seen carrying on Jan. 29, when he was recorded grabbing the girl by the elevators and forcing her into a nearby stairwell in a non-doorman building near First Ave. and First Ave. Loop in Stuyvesant Town.
Prosecutors said Parham, 33, bashed the teen’s head against a railing and wall before raping and sodomizing her at knifepoint for nearly 10 minutes during the broad daylight attack.
The girl struggled to fight back but “was unsuccessful,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joseph Goldstein said at Parham’s arraignment. “If not for a good Samaritan third party who interrupted the defendant, the sexual assault would have continued beyond the 10 minutes that it already did.”
Parham was caught on video following the teen in through the building’s front door after she swiped her key card to enter — “piggybacking behind her” before the door closed — just before the 11:45 a.m. attack. He then grabbed her around the waist as she waited for the elevator and dragged and pushed her into the stairwell.
Inside the stairwell, he slammed the girl’s head against the rail and wall before ordering her to take off her pants, grabbing her cellphone and threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.
When he ran off, he took the victim’s phone with him, officials said.
Police also recovered video of Parham following another woman into a different nearby Stuyvesant Town building — again “piggybacking” in behind her after she had swiped her key card to enter — just seven minutes before he entered the building where he’s accused of raping the victim. According to officials, Parham followed this other woman into an elevator car, but after finding a third person already inside of it, Parham exited after riding up just one floor and then left the building.
Cops quickly identified Parham as the assailant and put out his mugshot in the hopes someone would alert detectives about his whereabouts.
Investigators managed to track Parham’s location during the five-day manhunt and arrest him upstate New York early Tuesday.
He said nothing to reporters as he was led out of the 13th Precinct stationhouse on E. 21st St. Tuesday night.
Cops charged Parham with rape, robbery, attempted assault, predatory sexual assault, kidnapping, sex abuse and criminal possession of a weapon. A Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered him held without bail.
His most recent bust was on Jan. 8 for allegedly nabbing more than $1,800 worth of merchandise from a Midtown CVS, according to law enforcement sources. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he missed a Jan. 22 court appearance for the theft, prosecutors said.
He was busted for robbery in November for stealing merchandise worth $250 at knifepoint from a Bronx Walgreens, according to sources.
He pleaded guilty to menacing with a weapon in exchange for a 30-day jail sentence.
