Young NJ mother who was kidnapped and raped finally gets justice

🔴 A New Jersey man was sentenced to 34.5 years for a brutal knifepoint rape.

🔴 The attack happened in 2015 while the victim’s 3-week-old baby lay nearby.

🔴 DNA evidence later linked him to multiple sexual assaults, officials said.

IRVINGTON — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to more than three decades in state prison for raping a woman at knifepoint and assaulting her boyfriend, authorities say.

On Nov. 21, Kervin Joseph-Michel was sentenced to 34.5 years, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

Earlier this year, the 45-year-old man was convicted of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree aggravated sexual assault while armed with a knife, third-degree child endangerment, and fourth-degree aggravated assault.

His lengthy sentence brings a close to the decade-old case. Joseph-Michel was deemed unfit to stand trial several times, delaying justice for years.

Mother attacked at knifepoint while walking home with newborn

Prosecutors said that the victim, a 21-year-old woman, was walking home in Irvington on Nov. 4, 2015.

She was carrying her infant son, who was only three weeks old at the time.

Joseph-Michel approached her and tried to talk to her several times, but she rejected him at each turn. What she didn't realize, though, was that he followed her all the way home.

After the young mom got inside her home, Joseph-Michel put a knife to her back and said it was a gun, according to prosecutors. In the foyer, he sexually assaulted her at knifepoint while her baby rested nearby on the floor.

Chaos inside the home as attacker confronts victim and boyfriend

Soon after, the victim heard her boyfriend get home in his vehicle. She scooped up her child and sprinted for the door.

Prosecutors said the victim's boyfriend then went into the home and Joseph-Michel attacked him with the knife. However, Joseph-Michel was disarmed, and he ran away.

Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Celeste Montesino tried the case that secured Joseph-Michel's conviction. Montesino said the victim is a hero.

“She showed extraordinary courage in the face of terrible violence against her and her immediate family. I hope that she finds peace knowing that this defendant will no longer be able to hurt her or anyone else," Montesino said.

DNA links convicted man to three more sex crimes

Later, prosecutors said that DNA on the knife connected Joseph-Michel to the Irvington sexual assault and three separate sexual crimes between June and December 2015.

He was accused of raping another woman and a 13-year-old girl in their respective homes, and attempting to rape a fourth adult victim at her home, NJ.com reports.

Those cases will be tried sometime next year, according to ECPO spokesperson Carmen Martin.

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