PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release on July 19, 2006

Contact: William J. Smith (718) 556-7150
William.Smith@rcda.nyc.gov

D.A. Donovan: Ex-Con Sentenced to 25 to Life for Rape of 15- year old, Assaulting Her Mother & Arson of Their Home
Defendant Committed Crimes Three Months After Parole Following 18-Year Sentence for Attempted Rape in Brooklyn

     STATEN ISLAND, NY - Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. today announced that an Elm Park man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the violent rape of a 15 year old girl, brutal assault of her 39 year-old mother, and setting their Mariner’s Harbor townhouse aflame, while barricading himself inside, on May 24, 2004.

     District Attorney Donovan stated, “This was a vicious rampage by a career criminal, who in an orgy of rape and assault, brutally attempted to claim innocent lives by turning their apartment into an inferno. I am grateful to the heroes of the FDNY who rescued the girl’s mother and ensured that Vincent McCollum would survive the fire to face the justice that today sent him to prison for the rest of his life.”

     The defendant, Vincent McCollum, (DOB: 10/31/1958) of John Street, entered a guilty plea on June 20, 2006, to the felony charges of 1st Degree Rape and Attempted Murder in the 2nd Degree. The plea was entered prior to trial before Richmond Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Rooney, who also presided at sentence.

     District Attorney Donovan stated that in entering his guilty plea, McCollum acknowledged his guilt in a series of events in which he broke into the Holland Avenue townhouse and forcibly raped the girl at knifepoint while restraining and gagging her. He then proceeded to assault and choke the girl’s mother into unconsciousness. After completing his assault, McCollum barricaded himself in the home and set it aflame using accelerant. The girl was able to flee the home during the assault and McCollum and the mother were removed by firefighters to St. Vincent’s Hospital.

     McCollum was convicted in Brooklyn in 1986 of the Charge of Attempted Rape. He was paroled in the Spring of 2004, having served 18 years of an 8-year to life sentence.

     The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Yolanda L. Rudich, Chief of the Sex Crimes/Special Victims Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Duncan Brown. McCollum was represented by Joseph Licitra, Esq.

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