Washington, D.C. – Late yesterday afternoon, a District of Columbia Superior Court jury found a 23-year-old Capitol Heights man, Colin L. Hatch, guilty of sexually assaulting a prostitute at gunpoint, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

According to the government’s evidence at trial, on November 17, 2007, the defendant picked up a prostitute in downtown Washington, D.C. He agreed to pay her for sex and the two drove to a residential area where they parked. Before engaging in the sexual act, the victim asked for payment. Instead, the defendant produced a .45 caliber handgun, pointed it to her head, and told her that the sex would be free. The victim tried to talk the defendant out of it, but he told her not to speak. Scared for her life, the victim submitted to sexual acts in the hope that defendant would let her go after he was finished.

After the defendant finished sexually assaulting the victim and allowed her leave the car, he drove back down to the area where he had picked up the victim. Approximately fifteen minutes after the assault, the victim and a friend spotted the defendant driving in the area. The victim called the police. The defendant was eventually stopped in the 400 block of Eastern Avenue, NE, just a few blocks from his home in Capitol Heights, Maryland. The .45 caliber handgun, which he had lawfully purchased in Maryland, was found in his car. The evidence at trial also demonstrated that although the defendant wore a condom during the sexual assault, DNA recovered from the victim matched the defendant’s DNA profile.

After less than two hours of deliberations, the jury found Hatch guilty of two counts of First Degree Sexual Abuse while Armed with Aggravating Circumstances, two counts of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Crime of Violence, Carrying a Pistol without a License, and Possession of an Unregistered Firearm. The defendant faces a maximum term of imprisonment of life without the possibility of release. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on September 26, 2008, before the Honorable Geoffrey Alprin.

In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the hard work of the following members of the Metropolitan Police Department: Detectives Ingrid Harkins, Thomas Sepulveda, Wallace Carmichael, and Mark Gilkey, Officer Travis Maguire, Sergeant Seth Anderson, Officers Kief Green, Michael Tucker, Dale Vernick, and Thomas Caddell, and Evidence Technicians Keith Slaughter and James Savage. In addition, the U.S. Attorney acknowledged the great work of Victim Advocate Maria Shumar, Victim Services Coordinator Katina Adams, Paralegal Specialists Joyce Arthur and Cynthia Muhammad, Legal Assistant Donice Adams, and the entire Litigation Technology Support Unit. Finally, the U.S. Attorney commended the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorney John Einstman, who conducted the initial investigation and indicted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Rubenstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Hawk, who prosecuted the case at trial.