Ecuadorian migrant who allegedly raped 13-year-old NYC girl said he recorded the attack in sickening confession: DA
The Ecuadorian migrant charged with raping a 13-year-old girl he bound and gagged in a Queens park told cops he recorded the attack during a sickening taped confession, prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
The chilling admission by Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, 25, broke the silence in an otherwise-hushed court hearing in which he was arraigned on charges of rape, predatory sexual assault, kidnapping and a raft of other felonies from the shocking June 13 attack in Kissena Park.
“I was nervous at first, then got comfortable and recorded it,” Inga-Landi admitted in the videotaped statement, prosecutors said in Queens Criminal Court, drawing sighs from the audience.
Inga-Landi, who had scratches visible on his face, scowled and kept his head down throughout the arraignment, including as Judge Joanne B. Watters ordered him held without bail until his next court appearance July 1.
Watters agreed with Assistant District Attorney Kasey Esposito that Inga-Landi – who faces an immigration arrest from Texas for being an inadmissible alien after he crossed the border in 2021 – posed a flight risk given his “tenuous” ties to the US. The Post first reported that an immigration judge in 2022 ordered Inga-Landi to leave the country.
“The brazen and brutal nature of this defendant’s actions are indicative of someone who does not follow the law, and who has no regard for anybody else, but himself, and he will not return to court,” Esposito said.
The shocking videotaped statement, a transcript of which Esposito read in court, revealed new details about the broad-daylight attack in which the girl and a boy, both 13, were held at knifepoint with a “machete-style” blade.
Inga-Landi, who contended he had a drug problem, told cops he stumbled across the two teens having “sexual relations,” Esposito read.
He pulled out a knife he found in the park and threatened the teens with it, he told authorities.
The migrant tied the teens together with a shoelace, stuffed a bandana in the girl’s mouth and cut off her shorts and underwear, Inga-Landi allegedly said in the video.
After Inga-Landi raped the girl, he told the kids to wait 20 minutes while he ran off with their phones and threw them away, Esposito read.
“I went to buy drugs, afterwards,” he said, according to prosecutors.
DNA collected from water bottle at the rape scene matched a sample from Inga-Landi gave to immigration authorities in 2021, Esposito said.
Inga-Landi also had a distinctive boar tattoo on his chest and dental braces that matched a description of the rapist from the teens.
The assault prompted a five-day manhunt that drew a torrent of tips and ended Tuesday in a dramatic, caught-on-video takedown by neighborhood good Samaritans who said they recognized Inga-Landi as the wanted rapist, swarmed him and tied him up.
“Once we noticed it was him, everyone just was going crazy on him,” said Angela Sauretti, who called 911 while her brother pounded on the suspect.
No one has yet come forward to collect a $10,000 reward for information leading to the rape suspect’s arrest, sources told The Post.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz praised the children for their bravery, and said it ultimately helped connect Inga-Landi to the crime.
“It is amazing that after what they’d been through, their memory of the tattoo, braces, all of that was right on point,” she said. “Which is a remarkable thing for two 13-year-olds to remember.
“I do want to thank all of the individuals who made phone calls to make tips to make sure that we found Christian Inga in a timely fashion.”
Inga-Landi’s assertion that he recorded the rape is still under investigation, Katz said.
His public defense attorney, Lisa Saltzman of Queens Defenders, did not make a bail application during the hearing and asked for medical attention for her client, which the judge granted.
Inga-Landi faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life, if convicted on the main charge.
He’s charged with predatory sexual assault, first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery, second-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, obstructing governmental administration and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
