Man Indicted In Surprise Attacks On 2 Rego Park Women: DA

REGO PARK, QUEENS — A grand jury has indicted a Brooklyn man on more than a half-dozen charges for two attacks on women in their Rego Park apartment buildings this summer, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Richard Smalls, 58, was indicted on charges of burglary, robbery, strangulation and assault in connection with the violent robberies, according to the Queens District Attorney's Office.

If convicted, he could faces a sentence as long as 50 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors accused Smalls, a convicted rapist who lives in a shelter in Sunset Park, of two attacks on July 3 and July 28. The grand jury's indictment did not involve another, similar attack in August that NYPD officers had tied to Smalls.

In the first incident, Smalls is accused of following a 50-year-old woman into the elevator of her Wetherole Street apartment building, choking her and pulling a ring off her finger before running out of the building, according to prosecutors.

Just over three weeks later, on the afternoon of July 28, a 72-year-old woman was checking her mailbox inside the lobby of her building on 64th Avenue when Smalls is accused of grabbing her from behind, choking her and stealing her cash, watch and three rings.

Police tracked Smalls down several days after publishing a surveillance image of him going through the turnstile at the 63rd Drive subway station, according to prosecutors.