Nearly two years after a Bronx man slipped into an Upper East Side apartment before dawn and attacked the woman asleep inside, a judge has decided how long he will spend behind bars.
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Donovan Murphy, 30, was sentenced Tuesday to 34 years in state prison followed by 20 years of post-release supervision, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced. Murphy will also have to register as a sex offender in New York State and abide by a full and final order of protection in favor of the victim.A New York State Supreme Court jury convicted him on April 6 of two counts of first-degree rape, first-degree burglary as a sexually motivated felony, a second count of first-degree burglary, second-degree robbery, second-degree assault and fourth-degree grand larceny.
“Today’s sentence holds Donovan Murphy accountable for this horrific attack on a nurse while she was sleeping in her own apartment,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Although this case has reached its conclusion, the survivor’s recovery continues, and I hope she is able to heal from the lasting physical and emotional impact of this crime.”
The attack happened around 4 a.m. on September 28, 2024, inside the woman’s apartment in the vicinity of 92nd Street and First Avenue. Murphy took several bank cards from her wallet, then climbed into her bed, according to the DA’s office. When she woke and saw a man she did not know, she screamed and fell to the floor after a wave of dizziness.
Murphy grabbed her from behind and punched her repeatedly in the face, opening a five-centimeter laceration in her mouth that reached the muscle and fracturing bones in her face, prosecutors said. He then sexually assaulted and raped her before leaving the building.
He used the stolen bank cards to pay for a taxi and to buy items at a Bronx pharmacy, purchases that helped investigators identify him. Murphy was arrested days later on the Lower East Side.
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At the time of his indictment in 2024, prosecutors also said Murphy had followed a different woman home a few blocks away shortly after midnight that same night, ringing multiple buzzers in an attempt to get inside her building before leaving when her husband came to the door holding a baseball bat.Assistant D.A. Hunter Carrell and former Assistant D.A. Christina Kapalko handled the case, with help from the NYPD’s Manhattan Special Victims Squad and Warrants Squad.
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