Burglar gets 25 to 50 years in assault of Rhawnhurst woman
A Northeast Philadelphia man who admitted beating a 63-year-old Rhawnhurst woman with brass knuckles and then sexually assaulting her during a burglary was sentenced Friday to 25 to 50 years in prison.
A Northeast Philadelphia man who admitted beating a 63-year-old Rhawnhurst woman with brass knuckles and then sexually assaulting her during a burglary was sentenced Friday to 25 to 50 years in prison.
Abraham Cordova, 27, of Castor Gardens, pleaded no contest in January to attempted murder, attempted rape, and burglary in the April 11, 2013, attack inside the victim's apartment in the 7900 block of Loretto Avenue.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Cordova apologized for the assault and blamed it on his excessive drinking.
Defense attorney Conor Wilson asked for a sentence of not more than 15 years in prison.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Ann Butchart, however, cited Cordova's refusal to cooperate with the evaluation under Pennsylvania's Megan's law and sentenced him to consecutive prison terms on the three charges against him.
According to Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp, Cordova, a native of Guatemala illegally in the United States, broke into the woman's house to burglarize it and then assaulted the woman.
When the woman resisted, Kemp said, Cordova beat her with the brass knuckles. The attack cost the woman the sight in her left eye and damaged her vision in the other.
Kemp read a victim-impact letter from the woman, who wrote that the attack "totally ruined and destroyed my life." The woman said her life now is "deplorable and an abomination to me."