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Peekskill resident Cristian Panza was sentenced to 16 years in state prison in connection with his rape of a woman in 2021 and his attempted rape of another victim in 2018, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday, Nov. 14.
According to the DA's Office, Panza was implicated in the 2018 incident after drinking from a cup at police headquarters following his arrest for the 2021 rape. His DNA left on the cup matched forensic materials collected from the prior incident at the time.
The events leading to Panza's conviction and sentencing began at around 10 p.m. on Sept. 4, 2021, when he was attending a recreational sporting event and encountered a 20-year-old victim that he knew through his Peekskill mechanic shop.
Panza then took the woman to a bar in town, where he bought her several drinks until she became highly intoxicated. He then drove the victim to Depew Park under the pretense of driving her home and proceeded to strangle and rape her, officials said.
The victim was eventually able to get away from Panza and immediately reported the incident to police, who caught and arrested him as he ran from the area.
While he was at police headquarters following his arrest, the water cup he drank from was kept for DNA testing. This ended up becoming a match with an unsolved attempted rape case in Peekskill in 2018.
On the day of this incident, at around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2018, Panza met a drunk 39-year-old victim in a Peekskill bar. When she left the establishment, Panza followed her and offered to drive her home.
Because the victim believed he was a cab driver, she entered the backseat of Panza's car and gave him an address. However, Panza instead drove her to a wooded area. When the victim then demanded to know where he had driven her, Panza climbed into the backseat, strangled her, and tried raping her.
However, the victim scratched Panza as she fought him off and ran to a nearby residential building, where she banged on doors and yelled for help, leading to police being called to the scene.
Although DNA evidence was collected in the 2018 case, it only yielded a limited profile which made it ineligible for comparison against national or state databases of convicted offenders, the DA's Office said. However, it was still good for case-to-case comparisons, resulting in the match between DNA from the 2018 and 2021 incidents.
Panza later pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and first-degree attempted rape in September. He will serve 20 years of post-release supervision after his sentence is finished.
During court proceedings, Panza's victims read statements in court.
"To this day, I remember it like it was yesterday, and even now, sometimes I cry and ask myself, 'Why me?'...I am thankful every day for the good people who supported me throughout this process and for bringing justice so no one else has to endure what I went through," one victim said.
The other said the following: "I was both physically and psychologically impacted by the defendant’s attack. I lived in constant fear and on some days, although years later, I still do. I believe the sentence is fair and that God will also judge the defendant’s punishment."
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