Bronx Couple Breaks Into Yorktown Home, Assaults Woman

YORKTOWN, NY — A Bronx couple was accused of breaking into a Yorktown home and violently assaulting a woman.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said Tuesday that Darling Read, 35, and Jovanda Pardes, 29, were charged with multiple felonies in relation to a violent armed home invasion and robbery during which they repeatedly assaulted a woman who is an ex-girlfriend of Read’s, in a Yorktown home during the middle of the night.

“This alleged violent home invasion by a former intimate partner and his accomplice is a stark reminder that domestic violence knows no boundaries and can take many different forms,” she said.

Read and Paredes were arraigned Wednesday and remain in custody at Westchester County Jail.

A Westchester County grand jury indicted them on the following charges:

• Four counts of first-degree burglary, felonies
• Three counts of first-degree robbery, felonies
• Two counts of first-degree criminal use of a firearm, felonies
• Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony
• Fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony
• Two counts of second-degree assault, felonies
• Second-degree unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor

Read was additionally charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.

According to prosecutors, around 2:45 a.m. March 17, Read and Paredes unlawfully entered a Yorktown home where the victim, Read’s ex-girlfriend, was staying.

They woke her and chased her into a bathroom where they repeatedly kicked and punched her in the head and body and prevented her from leaving, police said.

Read and Paredes also hit the victim in the head with a hard object. Police said they were armed with a “ghost gun,” which had no serial number, and used it to threaten the woman.

The couple also stole two iPhones, according to authorities.

The Yorktown Police Department arrested Read and Paredes in the Bronx within hours of the incident, following an investigation with the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, the New York City Police Department and the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force.

With assistance from the NYPD, Yorktown police executed a search warrant on a storage unit in the Bronx rented by Paredes, where police recovered the gun used during the home invasion. Police also obtained surveillance video of the defendants entering and leaving the residence and storage facility the night of March 17.