Serial Predator Busted by D.A.

Vincent Heyward, 21, was finally indicted on Thursday, according to an announcement from Manhattan DA Morgenthau.
Serial Predator Busted by D.A.
Evan Mantyk
10/22/2009
Updated:
10/22/2009
NEW YORK—After a series of sexual assaults and robberies in Hamilton Heights and Chinatown earlier this summer, Vincent Heyward, 21, was finally indicted on Thursday, according to an announcement from Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.

Heyward has been indicted on multiple charges of predatory sexual assault, rape, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, burglary and robbery. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between August 1, 2009 and September 7, 2009.

Here are just a few of Heyward’s crimes: on August 1, 2009, Heyward grabbed a 59-year-old woman from behind and pulled her into an alleyway where he robbed and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint.

On August 10, 2009, he followed a 23-year-old woman into the elevator of her apartment building, where he grabbed her from behind, held a knife to her throat, and sexually assaulted and robbed her.

On August 18, 2009, he illegally entered an apartment building and followed a 69-year-old woman into the elevator, where he grabbed her, threw her to the ground, squeezed her so tightly that she had trouble breathing, and then he sexually assaulted and robbed her.

Heyward was linked to each of the cases by DNA evidence. He faces prison terms of up to 25 years to life.

Heyward was arrested on September 21, 2009. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in State Supreme Court, Part 1.
Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.