Thread: Man gets 109 years (Forsyth NC)

Man gets 109 years
He is convicted of 14 of 15 charges in several sex assaults



By Dan Galindo | Journal Reporter
Published: May 6, 2008

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008 ... 109-years/

A judge sentenced a Winston-Salem man to 109 years in prison yesterday after he was convicted of breaking into the homes of four women in 2005 and sexually assaulting them.

A jury in Forsyth Superior Court convicted Gilberto Cruz Hernandez, 27, of 14 of 15 charges he faced in the string of sexual assaults. The jury did not convict him on a charge of theft.

Judge A. Moses Massey sentenced Cruz Hernandez to 20 to 24 years for each of the two counts of first-degree sex offense and each of the two counts of first-degree rape that he faced.

Other convictions included second-degree rape, attempted first-degree rape, and robbery and burglary charges. Nearly all the sentences are to be served back to back.

"There is a sense of justice for what you put these four women and (one woman's child) through," Massey said.

Cruz Hernandez did not speak to the court. He said "Thank you" to his attorney, Paul James, before deputies led him away.

Jurors debated a little longer than an hour before deciding to convict on 14 charges.

"I think the prosecution, they had their stuff together," said juror Sharron Bullis.

James said that Cruz Hernandez would appeal.

In her closing argument, prosecutor Belinda Foster portrayed Cruz Hernandez as an arrogant, perverse man who broke into homes, raped women at gunpoint or knifepoint and, in one case, sat on a woman's couch after raping her and started to make conversation.

"Let me introduce you to the serial rapist, Gilberto Cruz Hernandez…. The man who likes small, Spanish women," Foster said, using a quote from a police interview with Cruz Hernandez after his arrest in October 2005.

Cruz Hernandez has also been charged in Guilford County with three sexual assaults in Greensboro and one in High Point.

At the time of Cruz Hernandez's arrest, Winston-Salem police said that they were looking for links to Cruz Hernandez in two other sexual assaults.

Foster said that prosecutors charged the cases for which they had DNA evidence that matched Cruz Hernandez.

None of the four victims who testified could identify their attacker, who in three cases wore a black ski mask. There was no fingerprint evidence and no testimony from anyone who saw a suspicious person near any of the apartments.

Cruz Hernandez's arrest came after an eight-month investigation by Winston-Salem police, who had DNA samples from more than 30 people tested before getting a match.

When police interviewed Cruz Hernandez in an unrelated break-in investigation, he willingly gave a DNA sample. Detectives Larry Snider and Michelle Lovejoy worked on the case.

"This was a pure DNA case," Foster said. "There was nothing else that said it was him. When I say nothing else, I mean nothing else."

Victims gave this account of what occurred:

â–¡ On Feb. 1, a woman on Penner Street was cooking when she heard a noise. She turned to see a man with a black ski mask and a knife. After she told him to take anything from the apartment that he wanted, he replied that he was not there to steal anything. He told the woman that she was not "the one he came for," then raped her. When her boyfriend called, the attacker held a knife to the woman's throat and told her to make up an excuse for why she was crying. The assault was the only one that occurred during the day.

â–¡ On Feb. 5, a Wake Forest University student awoke on a couch at a house on Polo Road after a night out celebrating her 21st birthday. She had been drinking heavily. Police believe that the rapist came into the unlocked house after some of her friends left to get an early-morning meal. Two others were upstairs asleep. Friends found her naked from the waist down when they returned. The student remembered nothing about the assault.

â–¡ On Feb. 17, a Wake Forest law student who lived on Bethabara Hills Drive awoke when her dog began barking. She opened her bedroom door. A man with a ski mask and a gun was standing there. The man threw her to the ground, tore off her clothes and raped her.

â–¡ On Feb. 22, a woman in an apartment on Commercial Plaza Drive awoke to find a man with a mask and gun standing over her. He pulled back the covers, then noticed stitches from a recent surgery. He took her debit card and, when she did not immediately give him her pin code, picked up her baby and put a gun to the baby's head. He then forced the woman to perform a sex act and hit her with the gun when she resisted.

It is still not clear how Cruz Hernandez chose the women.

Foster said that the four women said that it was too difficult to return to court during sentencing. She read a letter from one victim.

"I find myself locking doors and windows no matter what the hour may be," the woman wrote.

The woman wrote that rape was "the violation of someone's soul -- and it takes years to heal, if not a whole life."

Another victim, the law-school student, left Winston-Salem soon after the rape and did not return until last week, when she testified.

Foster said that the woman was devastated. She didn't return to law school to pursue her goal of becoming a public defender.

She is "afraid to go anywhere alone, be anywhere alone" and cut off her hair after the rape because, Foster said, her attacker had grabbed it.

â–* Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.

â–* Journal reporter Lisa Boone-Wood contributed to this story.

Was he legal or illegal??

A judge sentenced a Winston-Salem man to 109 years in prison yesterday after he was convicted of breaking into the homes of four women in 2005 and sexually assaulting them.

This is incorrect. Cruz is not a "Winston-Salem man" he is a twice deported illegal alien. Im on the phone to the highly biased WSJ now.

W

Special Note: ALIPAC activists were the ones that determined this guy was a twice deported illegal alien. It was like pulling teeth to get that information and the WSJ has concealed it all along.

W

If I'm not mistaken, this particular illegal alien was holding a good paying job, had a 200,000+ mortgage, a wife and child or children here in NC. I've got the articles stored on my computer at home, though I'm sure the same ones are here on ALIPAC. Took long enough to bring his sorry butt to trial! Belinda Foster used to be the DA in Rockingham county. Glad to see she's doing something in Forsyth Co.

Originally Posted by florgal

If I'm not mistaken, this particular illegal alien was holding a good paying job, had a 200,000+ mortgage, a wife and child or children here in NC. I've got the articles stored on my computer at home, though I'm sure the same ones are here on ALIPAC. Took long enough to bring his sorry butt to trial! Belinda Foster used to be the DA in Rockingham county. Glad to see she's doing something in Forsyth Co.

SAME ONE......

Here's the history....

http://www.alipac.us/article911.html

http://www.alipac.us/article867.html

I was wondering if he was illegal. Maybe we need the other stories printed full here on the thread. Was it another story or by phone calls to clarify?

109 YEARS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THAT SCUMBAG.

Remember - These crimes NEVER would have happened if this ILLEGAL ALIEN wasnt in the country.

and what about deportation after her serves his time if he lives that long? There was an ICE retainer on this creep. The Winston Salem Journal is such a biased rag.

W