Defendant: Ariel Caro (DOB 07/09/87)
Sept. 24, 2019 -- Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced Ariel Caro of New York City was sentenced to state prison for attempted sex crimes against a Westchester college student in 2018.
Westchester County Court Judge Susan Cacace sentenced Caro to two concurrent terms for the following charges to which he pleaded guilty in July:
- Attempted Sex Abuse in the First Degree, a class E felony
- Attempted Burglary in the Second Degree as a sexually motivated crime, a class D felony
For each count, Caro will serve 2.5 years in state prison and 10 years post-release supervision. In addition, he must register as a sex offender.
Background
Sept. 11, 2018, around 7:30 p.m., the defendant, Ariel Caro, knocked on a student’s dorm room door at Pace University in Pleasantville. When she opened the door, expecting someone else, Caro pushed his way in, closed the door behind him and blocked her access. At that point, Caro exposed himself and proceeded to masturbate in front of her. The resident asked him to leave, fearing what he might do to her. He continued his actions and tried verbally to engage her. Using her wits, the student began to repeat a series of expressions, acting, she said, as if she suffered from a form of autism, as she had seen on television. As she got louder, he chose to flee.
The student called her mother who called campus security on her behalf. Caro was not a student and had no legitimate reason to be on campus. When security checked surveillance video, they found Caro had been in another dorm as well and other students reported an unknown man knocking on their dorm room doors.
Mount Pleasant Police investigated further and found Caro had put his possessions and drug paraphernalia in a vacant dorm room earlier. For that action, he was charged with Burglary in the Second Degree, a class C felony. The sentencing on the sex-related crimes satisfied that charge.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lopez read aloud the victim’s impact statement. In it, the student described the fear and horror she felt. Eloquently, she wrote, “Perhaps one might think that because I was not “physically injured”–that perhaps the attack was not so serious–this is not so. This attack was heinous and the attacker in my opinion is a threat to society.” She added, “I wondered whether my life ambition of going to university was misplaced and thought about dropping out of college, but realized that this would only harm me further…I hope one day I will feel safe again and not so helpless, a feeling I never had before this horrible attack.”
Assistant District Attorney Michelle Lopez, Chief of the Sex Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case.
|
|
| Ariel Caro |
_______________
Media contact:
media@westchesterda.net
(914) 995-3586
