Rapist Sentenced For Assaulting 2 Women In Northeast Ohio

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, OH — A Cleveland man has been sentenced to prison for raping a woman in 2013 and a second woman in 2019.

“This predator violently beat and raped these victims, whose lives are now forever changed,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley. “He deserves every day of this decades-long prison sentence for these despicable actions.”

Derrick Brown, 26, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to charges of rape, felonious assault, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and grand theft.

On March 17, 2013, a 30-year-old woman was talking with a friend outside an apartment complex in Garfield Heights. Brown walked up to the two and began talking to them and then followed the duo into the apartment complex and waited for the 30-year-old's friend to leave, prosecutors said.

When Brown was alone with the 30-year-old he asked her to have sex with him, prosecutors said.

When she refused, Brown punched her in the face and broke her nose and then forced her to the ground and sexually assaulted her before running away, prosecutors said.

Garfield Heights police collected DNA left at the scene and entered it into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) — the FBI's national DNA database. However, there was no matching hit.

Nearly six years later, on Jan. 9, 2019, Brown broke into a 76-year-old woman's home in South Euclid by crawling through a basement window in the middle of the night, according to prosecutors. The woman woke after hearing noise in the kitchen. According to prosecutors, the woman confronted Brown, who attacked her, punching her multiple times, forcing her to the ground and sexually assaulting her at knifepoint.

Before leaving the woman's home, he demanded money, prosecutors said. The woman gave him cash and then Brown forced her into her own car at knifepoint, drove to a nearby bank, and ordered her to withdraw more cash, prosecutors said. He then dropped her off at her house and drove off in her car, prosecutors said.

The woman called 911 and police collected DNA evidence. The 76-year-old was driven to a hospital where a rape kit was collected.

South Euclid police were able to identify Brown as the suspect in the rape. DNA evidence collected from Brown matched both the 2019 and 2013 rapes, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Marshals took Brown into custody on Jan. 21, 2019. Brown then pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, felonious assault and more.

Brown was sentenced to 25 years in prison and will need to register as a Tier III sex offender, which requires him to re-register every 90 days for the rest of his life.