QUEENS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO TWO RAPES

PFMLIT ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, DEATH PENALTY FOR SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, DNA, General, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST, SIGN MAKER

Jofre Bautista, a 34 year old depraved predator who abducted a 13 year old schoolgirl off the street, raped and beat her, then used her cellphone to try to lure her friends, was described as a loving husband and protective father of two young daughters.  According to prosecutors, on October 18, 2005, at about 3:40 p.m., Bautista, of Brooklyn, was driving his minivan in Woodside, Queens, and called out to his victim, saying he needed directions to Queens Boulevard.  When she responded, he punched her, pulled her into the van, and threatened her at knifepoint that he would kill her if she did not comply.  Then he raped her.  Before dumping her out on the street, he stole her cellphone and then started making calls to her young friends.  

Police are also investigating whether he was behind three assaults on young girls on Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside earlier that year.

Bautista's wife, Roxana Morales, says she will stand by her man on one condition: that he looks into her eyes and tells her the truth.  When she goes to visit him in jail the first thing the loyal wife will say to him is: I don't believe you could do it.  Then, she said, she would demand the truth.  If he's man enough to admit to his crimes face-to-face, she said, he would get all of her support.

Bautista has been linked by DNA to a similar, vicious attack in 2003.  He has been in custody since fall of 2005 but was rearrested January 17, 2006, and charged with a nearly identical attack on a 15 year old girl in Elmhurst when he allegedly snatched the first victim on December 11, 2003, as she walked at 67th Street and Maurice Avenue around 8 p.m.  He dragged her to his car, where he threatened her with a knife, telling her he would kill her if she did not do as ordered and allegedly raped, beat and sodomized her.  

On March 14, 2006, Bautista pleaded guilty to raping the two teenage girls in separate attacks.  He is facing 50 years in prison for raping the 15 and 13 year old girls and pleaded guilty in exchange for an expected total sentence of 20 years.

(New York)