By 
DISTRICT ATTORNEY – NEW YORK COUNTY
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of EMANUEL BURROWES, 17, for the June 2015 attack on a 33-year-old woman in Chinatown. BURROWES pleaded guilty to all the charges in the indictment against him: Rape in the First Degree, Burglary in the First Degree as a Sexually Motivated Felony, as well as Burglary and Robbery, both in the Second Degree. Co-defendants SANAT ASLIEV, 17, and ERIC PEK, 17, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges.
“In just two hours, these defendants committed a spree of violent felonies across downtown neighborhoods,” said District Attorney Vance. “The actions taken by these young men are truly unforgiveable. No prison sentence can account for the pain and trauma that these defendants caused the survivor in this case, but I hope that these convictions will provide a sense of closure for her.”
According to the defendants’ guilty pleas, at approximately 3:30 a.m. on June 1, 2015, ASLIEV, BURROWES, and PEK repeatedly touched a barely conscious 33-year-old woman inside an internet café at 75 Eldridge Street, as she tried to push them away. The defendants then took the victim out of the café and into the stairwell of a nearby apartment building at 54 Eldridge Street. There, the defendants removed the victim’s clothing, beat her, and violently raped her.
In addition to sexually assaulting the woman, the defendants stole her personal belongings – including a cell phone, keys, identification, credit cards, and cash – before leaving her in the stairwell. They later used the stolen keys to enter her Chelsea apartment building.
Following the attack, the victim left the stairwell of 54 Eldridge Street and sought help. She was taken to a hospital for treatment. Members of the NYPD’s Manhattan Special Victims Squad apprehended the defendants in Brooklyn the next day.
Assistant District Attorneys Amanda Goun and Jennifer Gaffney, Deputy Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit, handled the prosecution of this case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti, Chief of Trial Bureau 40; Assistant District Attorney Martha Bashford, Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit; and Executive Assistant District Attorney John Irwin, Chief of the Trial Division. Paralegals Erin Drake and Hannah Wurgaft assisted with the case.
District Attorney Vance thanked the NYPD’s Manhattan Special Victims Squad, especially Detective Madeline Acevedo, Lieutenant Austin Morange, and Sergeant Michael Bock, for their work on this case.