In a recent development, Carl Phanor, a 29-year-old homeless man from New York City, who committed three cases of sexual assault and robbery against women in 2022, pleaded guilty at the end of April. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on July 1st that Phanor had been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for his violent sexual assaults on women in Manhattan between March and November 2022.
Phanor admitted to three counts of “Predatory sexual assault,” as well as two counts of first-degree criminal sexual acts, second-degree robbery, and second-degree strangulation in a hearing at the New York State Supreme Court on April 29th. He also confessed to an attempted second-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree robbery, and attempted first-degree rape.
Prior to these charges, Phanor had a criminal record with 25 previous arrests, mostly for offenses such as theft, assault, drug possession, and drug trafficking, and had spent time in a shelter in Manhattan’s Chinatown. In 2022, within just 8 months, Phanor violently assaulted three women who were jogging or walking along the Manhattan waterfront in the early hours of the morning.
On March 27, 2022, around 6 a.m., Phanor, riding a bicycle, attacked a female jogger from behind at Pier 46 in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and strangled her. After the sexual assault, Phanor also stole the victim’s phone. Then, on October 6th of the same year, around 5 a.m., Phanor repeated his actions near 37th Street in Midtown East, robbing a victim of their credit cards and phone before fleeing the scene.
In his third attack on November 3rd, shortly after 5 a.m., Phanor assaulted and sexually assaulted Gabrielle Sumkin, a female jogger, at Pier 45 in Greenwich Village, and robbed her. The victim sustained severe injuries, including a fractured neck vertebra, multiple rib fractures, a fractured sternum, and a punctured lung.
Sumkin later questioned in an interview with the New York Daily News, “Why was this allowed to happen repeatedly?” Phanor was apprehended later that morning at the Port Authority Bus Terminal – he had attempted to use the victim’s credit card to purchase a bus ticket.
Prosecutor Alvin Bragg stated, “Phanor has been held accountable for a series of heinous sexual assault acts.”
“The violent attacks by Phanor not only caused physical harm but also continue to inflict deep emotional and psychological trauma on many survivors. My office stands with the survivors to help them heal and address their trauma. We will continue to prioritize the well-being of survivors, hold accountable those responsible in court, and provide appropriate resources through the Survivor Services Bureau,” the statement said.