Man Sentenced For Brutal Harlem Assaults, Prosecutors Say

HARLEM, NY — A man is facing two decades in prison for two brutal assaults committed in Harlem during the spring of 2017, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced.

Keon Robinson, 29, was sentenced to 21 years in prison Wednesday, prosecutors said. The man pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree robbery and first-degree sexual abuse, prosecutors said.

Robinson admitted to violently robbing two women in April and May of 2017, prosecutors said. The first robbery occurred on April 24 on Bradhurst Avenue. The man approached a 35-year-old woman around 4 a.m., pretended he had a gun in his pocket and demanded her bag, prosecutors said. When the woman screamed, Robinson punched her in the face and took her bag, prosecutors said.

The woman suffered a black eye, bruising to her upper lip, pain and swelling to her jaw, prosecutors said.

The second assault occurred on May 4, prosecutors said. Robinson approached a 31-year-old woman visiting from Germany, put his arm around her throat and demanded her bag. Robinson then punched her, knocked her to the ground and continued to hit her until she was unconscious, prosecutors said.

While the woman was unconscious, Robinson sexually assaulter her in the street, prosecutors said. During the assault the woman regained consciousness, and Robinson punched her at least five more times, prosecutors said. The woman suffered a concussion, a laceration to the back of her head that required two staples, a broken tooth, two black eyes, multiple bruises on her face, neck and body and substantial pain, prosecutors said.

"Keon Robinson is a predator who brutally and viciously attacked two women in Harlem, robbing them and leaving them bruised and bloodied on the street," District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., said in a statement. "In the case of one of the survivors, who was visiting New York from Germany, the defendant knocked the victim unconscious, and then viciously sexually abused her."

Robinson was tracked down in Albany and arrested May 11, 2017, prosecutors said.

Photo by NYPD