Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Tuesday, May 4, that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in the Bronx in 2017.

 

Clark said, “The defendant followed a 12-year-old girl, who was on her way back home from a store, and sexually assaulted her in broad daylight. He also terrified the child by threatening to kill her and her family. We hope today’s sentence brings some solace to the victim and her family.”

 

Clark said the defendant, Malcolm Lugo, 24, last of 3988 Bronxwood Avenue in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, was sentenced on May 4 to 12 years in prison and 20 years post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court justice, James McCarty. The defendant will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from incarceration. The defendant pleaded guilty to a first-degree criminal sexual act on March 12, 2021.

 

According to the investigation, at 11 a.m. on August 13, 2017, near 1686 Weeks Avenue in the Claremont section of the Bronx, the victim was returning from a store when Lugo spotted her and followed her for a block. Video surveillance shows him grabbing the victim from behind and dragging her into an alley.

Lugo pressed what the victim believed to be a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He then sexually assaulted the victim and engaged in oral sexual conduct. Before fleeing the scene, he told the victim he knew where her family was, and threatened to kill them. When the child returned home, she told her mother what had happened and she called 911.

 

Surveillance videos show Lugo changing and throwing away his clothes after the incident, and at several friends’ houses across the city, in an attempt to evade authorities. He fled to Massachusetts and was arrested after a six-week manhunt.

 

The case was prosecuted by assistant district attorney, Kathleen Baer, supervisor in the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Rachel Ferrari, chief of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Joseph Muroff, chief of the Special Victims Division.

 

Clark thanked assistant district attorney, Anthony Perrotto, and trial preparation assistant, Vanessa Cabrera Deleon, both of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes, for their assistance in the investigation. She also thanked NYPD Detective Harris Goldner of the Bronx Special Victims Squad, and retired NYPD Detective Daniel Robbins of the Bronx Warrant Squad.