Jose Angel Gomez, 42, has confessed to a string of heinous sexual assaults that occurred in Washington, D.C., between July and October of 2018. Gomez's guilty plea encompasses charges that include first-degree sexual abuse while armed, among other counts, following a successful collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement agencies. On behalf of the U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr., the court has been informed that the convicted may face a prison term of 25 ½ to 35 years, pending the approval of Judge Todd Edelman of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, with sentencing set for April 4, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a detailed recounting of the disturbing attacks, evidence shows that Gomez followed his unsuspecting victims, using a knife to coerce and physically overpower them. Every incident ended with Gomez fleeing the scene, leaving his victims in terror. The precise account of these events, carried out by a man who once walked freely through the streets of our nation's capital, speaks to a profound betrayal of societal trust.
The first assault was on July 15, 2018, when Gomez, after a woman returned from a night out, knocked on her door and, once opened, assaulted her with a knife. Another attack followed on September 7, with Gomez stalking a 37-year-old woman from a metro station to a convenience store before dragging her to a secluded area to commit his crimes. The final known attack occurred on October 21, as he strangled and assaulted a woman who was simply waiting for her Uber, as detailed in the U.S. Attorney's Office's announcement.
Authorities attributed the breakthrough in these cold cases to DNA and other evidence that eventually pointed to Gomez, culminating in his arrest on June 7, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. His subsequent extradition to Washington, D.C., finally brought him to justice. The collaborative efforts underscore the success of the U.S. Attorney's Cold Case Sexual Assault Initiative, which has been instrumental since its creation in February 2018 in solving previously unsolved cases of sexual assault.
The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marco Crocetti, Sharon Donovan, and Amy Zubrensky, represents a critical strike against the impunity once afforded to criminals lurking in the shadows of cold case files. With the assistance of the MPD's Sexual Assault Unit and the Cold Case Unit, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other agencies, justice is no longer an abstract hope for victims but a tangible outcome powered by persistent and meticulous law enforcement work.
