MANHATTAN COLLEGE STUDENT GANG RAPED

BY RICHARD WEIR
NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

An apologetic rapist was expected to get seven years behind bars for the gang rape of a Manhattan college student, but a Nassau judge was in no mood yesterday to oblige Elwin Alcantara. "I want you deported as quickly as humanly possible. You have no business being around people," Nassau County Court Judge Jerald Carter told the Honduras native, before sticking him with a nine-year prison term. The apology made in court by Alcantara, and his promise to "never do it again," only served to infuriate Carter. "It's you, your conduct and your refusal to admit that you have a problem that got you the nine years," the judge said. Alcantara, 20, of New Cassel, pleaded guilty last month to taking part in the November 2001 gang rape of a 20-year-old Marymount Manhattan College student who was attacked as she walked home from the Westbury train station. The vicious assault remained unsolved for nearly two years. But cops got a break in August 2003, when Alcantara was busted for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl in a car and charged with statutory rape. I've read enough. I'm ready to join the fight against illegal immigration. DNA taken from semen in that case linked him to the Westbury rape. Nassau Assistant District Attorney Silvia Finkelstein noted that the Westbury case is the first cold case involving rape solved with the help of the new Nassau County Department of Forensic Genetics Lab. Alcantara, then 17, was one of two assailants who pounced on the college student as she left the train station at 1:45 a.m., punching her repeatedly in the face and dragging her into a dark alley. "They took turns raping her over the course of 45 minutes and left her there," Finkelstein said. The Marymount senior had finished midterms that day and was heading to a relative's Westbury home. The next day, she was supposed to travel to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. The pre-sentencing report completed by probation officials did not bode well for Alcantara. The document disclosed that as a 16-year-old, he had been convicted of having sexual contact with a minor. That case had been sealed because he was a juvenile. "Your probation report disturbed me greatly," Judge Carter said. The judge told Alcantara that he planned to write to immigration officials asking he be returned to Honduras immediately upon finishing his prison term. Outside the courtroom, Finkelstein said the Westbury rape victim was six months from graduating, but has not been able to return to college because she was left so traumatized. "This is a woman's greatest fear and worst nightmare," Finkelstein said. "To be alone at night, walking home and within a few blocks of your house, you're abducted, assaulted ... and gang-raped by two strangers."