A man who pleaded guilty to raping a Howard University student in a dormitory in November 2012 received a 48-year sentence Tuesday.
DeMarco Myles, 24, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse while armed, burglary while armed, kidnapping while armed, and misdemeanor counts of assault and second-degree theft.
Myles entered the Bethune Annex women’s dormitory in the 2200 block of Fourth Street NW the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2012, and went from room to room until he found his victim, according to prosecutors. Threatening her with a distinctive knife, Myles raped her.
During the attack, the victim pleaded with Myles to stop, saying she didn't know who he was, so he wrote “Marco” and a cellphone number on a piece of paper, showed it to her and said, “Now you know me,” according to the prosecution. He later tried to scratch out the number but left the paper behind.
Police responding to a 911 call figured out the number and tracked it to Myles, who they arrested that night at his home, where the also found the knife, prosecutors said.
Myles will serve the sentence concurrently with a 40-year term he is serving for an attack he committed a week earlier, prosecutors said.
Until his arrest for the Howard rape, police conducted a manhunt for the man who attempted to sexually assault a woman Oct. 26 in an apartment near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station in northeast D.C. That victim hid in a closet after he broke in and tried to assault her, but Myles overpowered her, stabbed her more than 20 times and left her for dead, according to the prosecution. He later told police he had killed the woman, but she managed to call 911 and survived.
Myles pleaded guilty in January 2015 to 10 charges connected to that attack.
Upon his release from prison, Myles will be on supervised release and be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
