NORFOLK, Va. - Amin Jason Carl Garcia, 27, of New York, New York, a convicted serial rapist and former U.S. Navy sailor, was sentenced today to 240 months in prison for attacking a former Army officer while she was taking a shower at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait in 2010. This sentence is to be served consecutive to the state prison sentence Garcia is currently serving.
According to court documents, on April 29, 2010, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID) Kuwait, was contacted regarding the assault and attempted rape of a U.S. Army officer in the female shower trailer on board Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. According to the victim, approximately three minutes into her shower, an unknown black male whose face was almost fully covered by a military tan undershirt, pulled her from the shower to the opposite end of the trailer and ordered her to face away from him. The victim resisted her attacker, who subsequently cut her numerous times with a box cutter type knife and punched her several times in the head. At one point during the attack, the attacker stated that he “guessed" he would have to kill her. Eventually, the victim complied with her attacker and stated that she would do what he wanted to do, but begged that he not cut her any more. Shortly after the comment, the attacker fled the scene on foot and the victim ran to her tent to get help before being transported to the medical facility in Camp Arifjan where she received numerous stitches to her face, arm and hand.
According to court documents, while processing the crime scene, investigators recovered a shirt covered in what appeared to be blood. That shirt was believed to be the shirt that was covering the face of the attacker. Also discovered at the crime scene was what appeared to be a trail of blood that led from the female shower trailer to a male washroom. Army CID collected blood from the trail. U.S. Criminal Investigative Laboratory (USACIL) tested the blood samples and determined that they came from two different DNA profiles: one DNA profile was that of the known female victim, and the other was identified as from an unknown male with Type A blood.
According to court documents, the unknown male’s DNA also was a match for DNA recovered at the scene of a sexual assault on a Norfolk woman in 2008. The same rapist returned to the victim’s home one month after the initial assault and raped the victim’s daughter. In addition to the DNA, the Norfolk Police Department (NPD) also recovered latent fingerprints from the crime scenes. NCIS and NPD began to work together to try to identify the rapist.
According to court documents, subsequent investigative steps identified Garcia as a possible suspect in the assaults. These steps included a check of military records, which confirmed that Garcia was in the U.S. Navy Reserves, lived approximately one mile from the 2008 Norfolk victims during the time of their attacks, and was assigned to Camp Arifjan at the time of the 2010 attack.
According to court documents, in December 2013, Garcia was still in the U.S. Navy Reserves. On the weekend of Dec. 14, 2013, when Garcia was serving his reserve drill period at the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC), Bronx, New York, NCIS investigators shadowed him. After Garcia ate lunch on base, agents seized the fork, two cups, and banana to recover swabs for DNA analysis. The analysis of the DNA seized by investigators revealed that it matched the DNA that was obtained from the assault of the victim at Camp Arifjan in April 2010 and the 2008 assaults in Norfolk. Further analysis revealed that the latent fingerprints recovered from the 2008 Norfolk crime scenes matched Garcia’s fingerprints.
Garcia pleaded guilty in federal court to the Kuwait assault on Nov. 20, 2015. In August 2014, Garcia was convicted of the 2008 rapes in Norfolk Circuit Court and was sentenced to life in prison.
Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and [NCIS], made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth M. Yusi and Benjamin L. Hatch prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:14-cr-134.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
