‘Creep’ with long rap sheet busted in horrific Central Park rape
A tattoo-covered transient with a mile-long rap sheet was charged yesterday in the horrific daylight rape of an elderly birdwatcher in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields.
David Albert Mitchell, 42, was hit with a laundry list of charges in Wednesday’s savage attack, in which he allegedly beat, raped and robbed his victim in retaliation for her [accidentally] taking a picture of him masturbating a week earlier.
The creep spat at a Post reporter’s face when asked about his alleged crimes as cops walked him out of the Special Victims Squad in East Harlem.
“I attacked no one,” he later barked as he was led in shackles into Central Booking.
The suspect—caught on surveillance camera (above) after Wednesday’s brutal daylight attack—has a long rap sheet going back decades, according to court records.
The suspect—caught on surveillance camera (above) after Wednesday’s brutal daylight attack—has a long rap sheet going back decades, according to court records.
He was ordered held without bail at his arraignment early this morning on charges that included rape, robbery and assault.
Prosecutor James Zaleta told the judge that Mitchell “jumped on her back, forced her to the ground [and] pounded her head repeatedly” before raping her. Zaleta said Mitchell had admitted he was the one caught on a surveillance camera leaving the scene.
Mitchell, a career criminal who has a history of preying on elderly women, was busted Wednesday evening at Amsterdam Avenue and West 77th Street by three rookie cops who recognized him from surveillance footage.
The 73-year-old victim picked Mitchell out of a lineup at the station house after first not recognizing him in a photo array shown at her apartment.
The alleged rape is the latest act in a lengthy criminal career.
He was previously charged with sex assault and first-degree murder in West Virginia for the fatal beating of an 86-year-old woman named Annie Parks.
Mitchell, then 18, allegedly killed her with a blunt object, then agreed to plead guilty to murder. But prosecutors insisted on a trial, and he was acquitted.
A few months later, he was busted for a home-invasion rape of a woman in her 70s and stealing her gun. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and served eight years.
In 2003, he was convicted in Virginia of abduction and kidnapping and served another eight years.
The victim in that case, his sister-in-law and former girlfriend Saretta Mitchell, told The Associated Press yesterday he was “a sick individual as far as sex goes,” and that his problems are “always sexually driven.”
Mitchell had recently become a menacing figure in Central Park.
He is covered with tattoos, including images of Nordic warriors on his chest, skulls and a grim reaper on his back, and tears under his eyes.
He and the latest victim first crossed paths in the park’s Ramble on Sept. 2, when she allegedly spotted him masturbating and snapped a photo. He demanded she give up her “film,” but she fled.
The woman uploaded the digital photo to her computer but intentionally deleted it later. Cops have since recovered it from her computer hard drive.
In Wednesday’s attack, Mitchell allegedly sneaked up behind her and asked, “Do you remember me?” before throwing her to the ground and raping her.
A passer-by called 911.
Cops allegedly found the fiend carrying the victim’s camera-memory cards.
Papers from her backpack, which cops believe the suspect took, were found at a Lutheran church near the attack scene.
The victim yesterday was recovering at home after receiving treatment to prevent HIV, she told The Post.
“I’m alive. It’s as good as any day can be,” she said.
Police sources said that on Aug. 20, Mitchell pulled a knife on Ayrton Dos Santos, a Central Park regular known as “Gary, the Mayor of Strawberry Fields.”
“I didn’t want to smoke a doobie with this guy, and he got pissed off,” Dos Santos said. “Ten minutes later, he comes back with a knife and says, ‘I got no problem plugging you right here in front of all these people and filling this circle with blood.’ “