NYC cabbie sentenced 13 years for raping girl, 12, during hellish drive
A cabbie who repeatedly raped and violently assaulted a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint while driving her around Brooklyn for more than two hours was sentenced Friday to 13 years behind bars.
Rafael Martinez, 35, was hit with the jail term by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Donald Leo.
Martinez had pleaded guilty to first-degree rape on June 26 for the sickening Aug. 10, 2020, attack.
According to prosecutors, Martinez — then employed by Evelyn Car Services — picked up the teen from her great-grandmother’s place in Fort Greene and was supposed to drop her off at her home in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Instead, Martinez stopped his cab on Bergen Street, brandished a loaded gun he had in the glove compartment and threatened the preteen, warning: “If you say anything, these bullets are for you,” authorities said.
“If you tell anybody, I know where you live, I’ll come to get you and your family,” he told the victim, according to a criminal complaint.
Martinez then climbed into the back seat and punched the girl before raping her — only to then drive to another location where he raped her again in the back seat, prosecutors said.
The girl returned home more than two hours after the cab pickup, telling her mom she had been raped.
The girl’s mom, Shareena Edwards, told The Post in an exclusive interview her daughter “saw her whole life flash before her eyes” during the nightmare ride — and suffered a “definite identity crisis” in the months after the attack.
“Now, she has a seriousness to her. I’m trying to get her back to being that happy kid,” Edwards said.
The victim’s mom and great-grandmother filed a lawsuit against three car service companies claiming that they failed to properly conduct a background check on Martinez.
The case is ongoing.
Martinez, who was out on bail in the case, will have to register as a sex offender after finishing his prison term — which includes 20 years’ post-release supervision.
Edwards did not immediately return the Post’s request for comment.
