Washington, D.C. - A 23-year-old Capitol Heights man, Colin L. Hatch, was sentenced this afternoon in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before the Honorable Geoffrey Alprin to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a prostitute at gunpoint in 2007, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today. Hatch was a deacon in his church and an applicant to become a police officer in Baltimore, Maryland, when he committed the sexual assault.

On July 21, 2008, Hatch was found guilty of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse 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.

According to the government’s evidence at trial, on November 17, 2007, at approximately 3:30 a.m., the defendant picked up a 23-year-old prostitute in downtown Washington, D.C., near 10th and K Streets, NW. Hatch agreed to pay the prostitute for sex and the two drove to a residential area near 10th and O Streets, NW, 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 the defendant would let her go after he was finished.

After the defendant finished sexually assaulting the victim and allowed her to 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.

In announcing the sentence, 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 and sentencing.