Illegal immigrant facing rape, sexual assault and kidnapping charges after brazen afternoon attack on a child in a park

NEW YORK CITY, NY - An illegal immigrant from Ecuador has been arrested and charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in a park in New York City. The suspect, 25-year-old Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi was reportedly caught by Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas, over three years ago, but was released into the U.S. interior with a future court date.

According to Fox News, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that a year later, in February of 2022, an immigration judge ordered Inga-Landi to be deported, but he never was. The illegal immigrant is part of ICE's non-detained docket, which has grown to 7.4 million cases. Each ICE officer has to manage an average of 7,000 cases at a time.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested Inga-Landi for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Queens. He is facing other charges on top of the sexual assault and rape charge. According to the New York Post, Inga-Landi was arraigned on charges of rape, predatory sexual assault, kidnapping and other felonies from the horrifying attack.

Prosecutors allege that the Ecuadorian illegal immigrant confessed that he recorded the moments he bound and gagged the young girl in Kissen Park on Thursday, June 13th. In the videotaped statement, Inga-Landi said, "I was nervous at first, then got comfortable and recorded it" 

Surveillance video of the area led police to identify Inga-Landi as the primary suspect in this case. There were also several tips about his whereabouts being shared with the NYPD. He was eventually arrested after a group of neighbors recognized him from a wanted poster. About 10 people held him down until police arrived on scene to arrest him.

On the day of his arrest, Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York City lodged an immigration detainer against his release. During his arraignment, Judge Joanne B. Watters ordered him held without bail until his next court date, which is set for July 1st. Watters agreed with Assistant District Attorney Kasey Esposito that Inga-Landi posed a flight risk give his "tenuous" ties to the U.S.

Esposito said, "The brazen and brutal nature of this defendant's actions are indicative of someone who does not follow the law, and who has no regard for anybody else, but himself, and he will not return to court." 

The videotaped confession was read as a transcript by Esposito in court, revealing new details about the broad-daylight attack in which a boy and girl, both 13-years-old, were held at knifepoint with a "machete-style" blade. Esposito read, on, saying that Inga-Landi told police he stumbled across the two teens having "sexual relations."

He told authorities that he pulled out a knife he found in the park and threatened the teens with it. He then tied the teens together with a shoelace, stuffed a bandana in the girl's mouth, and cut off her shorts and underwear. After he raped the girl, he told the two teens to wait 20 minutes while he fled with their phones, which he later threw away. He told the police, "I went to buy drugs afterwards."

Esposito said that DNA collected from a water bottle at the rape scene matched a sample from Inga-Landi that he gave to immigration authorities back in 2021. He also had a distinctive boar tattoo on his chest and dental braces that matched the description given by the two teens.

The brutal assault promoted a five-day manhunt that ended with a neighborhood of good Samaritans noticing Inga-Landi as the man on the wanted posters. Angela Sauretti said, "Once we noticed it was him, everyone just was going crazy on him." Sauretti called 911 as the group swarmed him and tied him up.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz praised the two teens for their bravery and said it ultimately helped connect Inga-Landi to the crim. She said, "It is amazing that after what they' been through, their memory of the tattoo, braces, all of that was right on point, which is a remarkable thing for two 13-year-olds to remember."

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. He has been charged with predatory sexual assault, first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery, second-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, obstructing governmental administration, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Prior to these violent offenses, Inga-Landi had several low-level offenses, including subway fare jumping and drinking in public. NYPD said that he was also involved in a domestic violence incident in which no charges were filed and he has an unspecified arrest in Texas.