A New Jersey man convicted of raping a woman while he held a knife to her neck was sentenced to 34 years and six months in prison, authorities announced Monday.
Kervin Joseph-Michel, a 43-year-old Irvington resident, was convicted last year of kidnapping and sexual assault.
“The victim in this case is a hero,” said Essex County assistant prosecutor Celeste Montesino, who tried the case. “She showed extraordinary courage in the face of terrible violence against her and her immediate family.”
The victim, 21 years old at the time, was walking home in Irvington on Nov. 4, 2015, when Joseph-Michel attempted to engage her in conversation, authorities said. She ignored his advances, but he followed her into her home, cops said.
Inside the home, Joseph-Michel placed what he claimed was a gun on the victim’s neck, then pulled a knife and sexually assaulted her, according to investigators. The victim was carrying her 3-month-old son when she encountered Joseph-Michel, and the boy was in the home at the time of the attack.
The assault ended when the victim’s boyfriend arrived home, authorities said. Joseph-Michel lunged at the boyfriend with the knife, missed and ran away, according to police.
Joseph-Michel’s case was delayed for several years due to multiple rulings that he was mentally unfit to stand trial, according to prosecutors. Following his 2016 arrest, he was also named as a suspect in two more rapes and one attempted rape in Essex County.
