A homeless migrant with ties to a notorious Venezuelan gang has been arrested for robbing a Manhattan assistant district attorney who caught him masturbating in her building, police said Wednesday.
Brandon Simosa, 25, is facing sexually motivated robbery, burglary, drug possession, possession of stolen property and other charges for the sickening attack inside a Hell’s Kitchen apartment building on W. 44th St. and Ninth Ave. on Sunday.
His 38-year-old victim, a Manhattan ADA, was returning home at about 2 a.m. when she spotted him pleasuring himself in the hallway.
But, instead of running off in a panic, the heavily tattooed 5-foot-5 Simosa began following the woman, asking her for money, cops said.
He then attacked her, taking her purse, which contained her cell phone and several bank cards.
The ADA was not injured, cops said.
Cops managed to link Simosa to the robbery by tracking the victim’s cell phone, a police source with knowledge of the case said. At the same time, they recovered surveillance footage of Simosa, which cops released to the public, asking for information about his whereabouts.
Investigators arrested Simosa nearby in Midtown Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. outside a migrant hotel, though he reportedly was not living there. His arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Wednesday.
According to police, Simosa is from Venezuela and is a member of Tren de Aragua, the largest criminal organization in that country with more than 5,000 members.
Members have been linked to human trafficking, extortion, drug crimes and murder, officials said.
He’s been arrested eight times since arriving in the U.S., beginning in June, for crimes ranging from robbery to grand larceny to criminal mischief, police said.
