Mancia-Morales, illegal immigrant from Honduras raped 75-year-old woman

[Whitebear]

Mancia-Morales, illegal immigrant from Honduras raped 75-year-old woman


A man sentenced to life in prison last week for raping a 75-year-old woman in August in her Sterling Park home has been charged with a similar sexual assault that occurred several months earlier, Loudoun County authorities said yesterday.

Arnold J. Mancia-Morales, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras with five prior convictions, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison plus 53 years for br
eaking into a home and raping the resident at knifepoint.

Yesterday, the county sheriff's office said Mancia-Morales will also be charged in an attack on a 51-year-old woman that occurred in April in the Newberry section of Sterling Park. Warrants for rape, breaking and entering, abduction to defile and forcible sodomy were served on him yesterday at the county jail.

Police said circumstances of that incident were similar to those in the August attack, when Mancia-Morales broke through the glass door of the 75-year-old woman's home shortly after midnight, waking her. When she went to investigate the noise, Mancia-Morales attacked.

"This is an atrocious case, and the victim continues to struggle to deal with this," Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman said in a statement. In the four-day jury trial, Mancia-Morales received a life sentence for rape, 30 years for armed burglary, 22 years for abduction and one year for assault. DNA and other medical evidence was used
to convict him.

If he is released from prison, Mancia-Morales will be transferred into the custody of federal immigration authorities. His prior offenses included a 2006 felony burglary conviction in Clarke County and four misdemeanor charges in Loudoun County in 2007 and 2008, including two assaults.

"His crimes just kept escalating," Plowman said.