Brooklyn 20-Year-Old Guilty of Raping Elderly Woman in 'Terrifying' Home Break-In

BROOKLYN, NY — The young man behind a "terrifying," hours-long burglary and sex attack targetting an 82-year-old woman in South Brooklyn's quiet Brighton Beach neighborhood two summers ago has been found guilty of a slew of charges, including first-degree rape, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced Monday.

Asa Robert, 18 years old at the time of the attack and 20 years old today, now faces up to 122 years in prison.

Robert's elderly victim "had the courage to face her attacker in court," the DA said Monday.

The woman testified that around 2 a.m. on July 13, 2015, as she was taking out her garbage, Robert entered her apartment on Brighton 11th Street and hid in her bedroom, where he waited for her to go to sleep.

"A short while later, after the victim went to bed, she heard a noise and discovered the defendant hiding in her bedroom," according to the DA's Office. "The victim yelled for him to leave, but he refused."

Robert then wrapped his hands around the woman's neck, strangling her, while he forced her back onto the bed, the woman testified. Once he had her trapped there, he held a knife to her face; demanded money; punched her in the chest; tied her hands behind her back; and ransacked the bedroom, she said.

Robert then took the woman into her kitchen, where he continued to assault her, she said — then brought her back into her bedroom, where he raped and sodomized her around 4 a.m.

"After again instructing the victim not to call the police, the defendant fled the home with a bag containing the victim’s personal items," according to the DA's Office. "The victim called family members, who called 911."

The attack had lasted more than two hours.

As the old woman recovered at Kings County Hospital, Robert — who had been caught on surveillance tape entering the woman's home — led cops on an exhaustive, days-long manhunt through the Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights area, where he's from. (His most recent listed address was at Montgomery Street and Schenectady Avenue in Crown Heights, near the border with Weeksville and Brownsville.)

With her face hidden, Robert's mother spoke to TV news cameras, begging her son to turn himself in.

“Usually he’s not that type of person. He normally helps women," his mom told Pix11. "Yes, he has had trouble before — but nothing like this."

NYPD detectives finally found Robert hiding out in a private home in Bed-Stuy around 4:30 a.m. on July 17, police said.

The local teenager was immediately arrested and hit with 12 different charges — including rape, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of an elderly person.

"This defendant has now been brought to justice and held accountable for his actions," Acting DA Eric Eric Gonzalez said Monday, upon announcing Robert had been convicted for his crimes.

Justice Vincent Del Giudice — the same judge who recently sentenced a student-raping assistant principal in Williamsburg to just six months in jail — is scheduled to decide how long Robert should spend in prison on Jan. 10.