Man, 18, Is Sentenced to Three Life Terms for Sexual Assault
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 28, 2007; B04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02215.html

An 18-year-old man was given three life sentences plus 20 years yesterday for sexually assaulting an Arlington County woman with a stick as she walked along the county's popular Four Mile Run bike trail on a bright summer evening last year.

Rubio A. Angel, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was found guilty in March of abduction with intent to defile, malicious wounding and two counts of object sexual penetration in the July 9 attack.

Arlington Circuit Court Judge Benjamin N.A. Kendrick said he had never seen a case push the boundaries of "brutality and viciousness" like Angel's attack on the 42-year-old woman.

Angel, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, looked down at his feet during the proceedings.

His victim had just finished watching the World Cup final with friends at her Arlington home last July when she slipped on flip-flops, grabbed her cellphone and sunglasses and headed for the bike trail.

A half-hour later, she was lying in a secluded wooded area just off the path, naked from the waist down, bleeding profusely with her eyes swollen shut. She was in so much pain, she testified, that she did not realize she had been sexually assaulted with a stick.

A couple on the bike path discovered her there when they heard her moaning.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Molly H. Newton said Angel "reminds us of the existence of evil in this world."

She recounted the brutal attack in detail, which she said took place hours after Angel had groped three other women. Newton said that after the vicious attack, he went on to assault yet another woman, apparently not yet "satisfied," she said.

Newton said Angel expressed no remorse for his attacks, telling a court-appointed doctor he did not understand "what the big deal" was since nobody had been killed.

"I'm feeling very relieved, very vindicated," the victim said after the sentencing. "I hope he gets a taste of the suffering he caused so he can see what it feels like. I am just so angry."

The victim said she considers herself lucky, however, that the police apprehended her attacker and that he will now face justice. "So many victims of sexual attacks don't get that," she said.