The 23-year-old upper Manhattan man convicted last month for a series of violent rapes and attacks on women in 2009 has been sentenced to 200 years to life in prison, with an additional consecutive sentence of 228 years in prison.
Vincent Heyward was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 18 of multiple felonies, including 18 counts of predatory sexual assault.
"The defendant viciously preyed on victims who were physically weaker than him, including a 69-year-old woman," said District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. "Thanks to the successful use of forensic DNA evidence in the investigation, this criminal was held responsible for a monstrous pattern of violence against New York women."
Prosecutors said Heyward violently attacked five women during a two-month period in 2009, often following women into their apartment buildings in Hamilton Heights and Chinatown, and restraining or beating them as he raped them.
In one case, on Sept. 7, 2009, Heyward broke into the apartment of a 28-year-old woman who was sleeping, and woke her to rape and rob her at knifepoint, prosecutors said.
His victims ranged in age from 23 to 69 years old. Vance commended the victims Tuesday for "bravely coming forward" for the trial.
Heyward was caught in September 2009 with the help of DNA evidence.
