MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Hempstead man was sentenced to 55 years to life today for raping three women working in prostitution from June to August 2013 and attempting to rape another.
Ramone Smith, 26, was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 7 before Acting Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano of:
• Predatory Sexual Assault (an A-II violent felony)
• Two counts of Rape in the 1st Degree (a B violent felony)
• Criminal Sex Act in the 1st Degree (a B violent felony)
• Attempted Rape in the 1st degree (a C violent felony)
• Two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 3rd Degree (a D violent felony)
• Robbery in the 3rd Degree (a D felony)
• Attempted Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree (an E felony)
“This sexual predator lured his vulnerable victims online and then brutally raped them,” DA Singas said. “Today’s sentence ensures that this twisted defendant will no longer pose a threat to women in our communities.”
DA Singas said on July 18, 2013, Smith attempted to rape a 22-year-old woman at knifepoint in the woman’s motel room in Westbury. Smith had answered the woman’s advertisement on the website Backpage.com and had agreed to meet her at the room, where he then tried to sexually assault her. Smith also forcibly stole an item of the woman’s lingerie before she was able to flee the room and to safety.
Smith also met three other women between June and August 2013 at his apartment building on Washington Street in Hempstead after he had answered each woman’s advertisement in an “adult entertainment services” section on Backpage. Each of these women, ages 22, 27 and 19, was instead lured to the roof by Smith, where he sexually assaulted them. The rapes occurred on June 18, Aug. 7 and Aug. 27, 2013.
Victim impact statements from two of the women were read aloud at Smith’s sentencing, where Smith was sentenced to a total aggregate sentence of 55 years to life.
Smith was arrested by detectives from the Nassau County Police Department’s Narcotics Vice Squad working in conjunction with the Special Victims Squad on Nov. 15, 2013 and rearrested on Dec. 9, 2013.
Assistant District Attorney D.J. Rosenbaum of DA Singas’ Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case. Smith is represented by Ed Mandery, Esq.