Posted on 09/06/2014 12:45:41 AM PDT by csvset
NORFOLK
Her attacker broke in through a back door while she was sleeping. He tied her up and held a knife to her throat. He said he wasn't going to rape her, that he was hungry and just wanted money.
But he did rape her. A month later, he returned in the middle of the night to the same house near Ocean View. He bound the woman and her teenage daughter with duct tape and raped the girl.
Norfolk police investigated, but the case went cold.
Two years later in Kuwait, in 2010, an Army captain was showering when a man whose face was covered by a shirt snuck up behind her holding a box cutter. She tried to fight him, but he began cutting and punching her. He turned her around, then suddenly ran away.
Through DNA testing, authorities discovered that the genetic profile matched in Norfolk and in Kuwait. But the attacker's DNA did not match anyone in the FBI's database.
About a year ago, Norfolk police discovered a match between a fingerprint found on a condom package at one of the 2008 attacks and a Norfolk man, Amin Jason Carl Garcia, according to court records.
Garcia was a Navy reservist who had lived in the Ocean View area in 2008 and who served in Kuwait in 2010.
On Jan. 2 of this year, a Norfolk Circuit Court grand jury indicted Garcia in the Norfolk attacks. Authorities found him in Brooklyn, N.Y., seven days later. Last month, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a federal charge of attempted rape against Garcia in the Kuwait attack.
Police were surprised when they learned that Garcia was their suspect. He was a track star at Norview High School who won numerous local and state meets. The Virginian-Pilot named him a top-10 track athlete in 2006.
A hamstring injury ended his career and cost him a scholarship. He joined the Navy right out of school, serving in India, Kuwait and Afghanistan. As a petty officer second class, he worked as a utilitiesman maintaining plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems. He had a clean record, collecting 10 awards and decorations.
During an interrogation in January, a Norfolk detective told Garcia he'd done a lot of positive things:
"Your character is not bad. This doesn't sound like the kind of thing you would do. Going back to your character, you're not a guy who's on the street. You're not on the street gangbanging, shooting and robbing.... You're a good, hardworking guy."
Detectives and agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were careful in their pursuit of Garcia after finding the fingerprint match. They found him serving in a Navy Reserve unit in the Bronx.
On the weekend of Dec. 14, "NCIS investigators shadowed Garcia," Special Agent Samantha Martin wrote in a court affidavit.
They watched him eat a meal at the base galley. He walked away leaving behind two cups, a fork and a half-eaten banana. The agents seized the items and sent them to a lab in Norfolk for DNA testing. Court records say Garcia's DNA matched samples taken from the crime scenes in Kuwait and in the first rape in Norfolk. The records aren't clear as to whether there was a DNA match in the second Norfolk rape, but police had Garcia's fingerprint from that crime scene, lifted off a package of condoms left behind.
In 2008, Garcia was living about a mile from the rape victims' home. They suspect he spotted the woman and plotted an attack, court records say. At the time, the victim was a 38-year-old chief petty officer.
She described the attack to a detective while in a hospital emergency room during the early morning of Aug. 28, 2008.
He first tried to shove a pillow case in her mouth, then held a knife to her throat.
"He kept saying that all he wanted was money and he wasn't going to hurt me," she told the detective. "He put me on my stomach and tied my hands behind my back."
After he raped her, he started asking her all kinds of questions. He noticed her Navy uniforms hanging up and, inexplicably, called her a baby killer.
"He said he liked me and asked if he could come by and visit," she said in her statement. Then he tied her legs with the cord of an iron. She felt the water from the steamer drip on her body. He stole $200 and left. She managed to untie herself and call 911.
He returned the night of Sept. 23, 2008, while the woman and her teenage daughter were sleeping, according to court records. He bound both with tape and raped the teenager, the records say. (She was not home during the first attack.)
During his interrogation in New York in January, Garcia told a detective that the sex was consensual that August night, but he stopped the interview and asked for a lawyer. Later, while awaiting trial, he filed papers in court saying he had an alibi the night of the second attack. He was with two friends, each of whom backed him on it.
Garcia's case went to trial last week in Norfolk Circuit Court. He did not ask for a jury. A judge convicted him of all six counts: burglary, rape and robbery in the August attack and robbery, burglary and abduction with intent to defile in the September attack.
On Aug. 21, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a complaint in federal court charging Garcia with attempted aggravated sexual abuse in the Kuwait attack.
At the scene of the April 29, 2010, crime in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, authorities recovered the tan shirt that the attacker wore over his head. It was covered in blood. Garcia's DNA was found in some of the samples, court records say.
Garcia, 25, remains in jail and will be sentenced for the Norfolk convictions Dec. 12. He does not yet have a date to be in federal court.
His attorney, James Garrett of Virginia Beach, did not respond to phone messages.
Tim McGlone, 757-446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com Posted to: Crime News Norfolk
Worked like a charm. The suspect broke down and confessed.
The crime of rape is not about sex or street cred. It is about POWER over a helpless smaller person.
Please send this VIRAL! My boys played with Nikki’s brothers, her mom is my friend. She has had 1 nervous breakdown over this, and is on the verge of a second and has a lot of health issues. ALL state and Fed Appeals have run out and the DP 2 juries decided Death was the correct punishment UPHELD. DNA proved he did it along with confession. I remember the day searchers came to the door looking for a missing Nikki, this was before Amber Alerts. I and just buried my own murdered son the year before.
Ashley Nichole ‘Nikki’ Read, age 8, RAPED and KILLED by david keen. 24 yrs ago. He has been on TN Death Row for 20 yrs. ALL State and Federal Appeals are run out. DNA proved he raped her, he confessed he both raped and strangled her to death with her own shoe laces. Yet TN Gov Bill Halsam (RINO) refuses to set an execution date or sign the execution warrant.
Nikki was raped, strangled with her own Shoelaces, and thrown in the river barely still alive, where she finally drown to death. 24 Yrs of waiting for Justice, is obscene.
Tell TN Governor to do his Constitutional Duty, that 2 juries decided was the right course of action. Death Penalty.
615) 741-2001
http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/keen-david.htm
She may not have had the means to move financially. Her failure to upgrade security is shameful. There are portable alarms you can put on your door that don’t cost much. Or to get a gun and learn to shoot. At least keep a sharp butcher knife under your pillow.
It was hard mentally to remain in the home that was just a few hundred yards from where my 16 year old was ambushed and murdered just so some sociopath druggie could get his jollies. But due to lack of funds we had no choice. My husband kept the pistol by the bed at night after that. When he died I slept with it under my pillow. And yes it was hard to stay in the same house then to. No money to move, trailer paid for. All I had was monthly lot rent and utilities to worry about. I was 57 no job skills and in the beginning phase of bad health at the time that has lingered for years just growing worse over time. Thank God my husband insisted we both take CCW courses and get guns.
How horrible. I am so sorry for your own loss, as well. Prayers.
To clarify: Years ago Virginia adopted a Truth in Sentencing law which abolished parole. This man will die behind bars.
Oh yea, Caroline Mason.
She must spend her entire paycheck on beauty salons, clothes and shoes. :)
She’s good though. Gets results.
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