Jose Angel Gomez, 42, has been sentenced to a stern 35-year prison term after pleading guilty to a series of violent sexual assaults that occurred between July and October 2018, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia disclosed. Gomez, once a resident of the District, admitted to his crimes on January 23, following conclusive DNA and other evidence that solidified his guilt.

Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman, who handed down Gomez's sentence, also imposed a term of lifetime supervision and sex offender registration upon his eventual release. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office statement, Gomez's first attack took place on July 15, 2018, after the 22-year-old victim returned from a night out, only to be assaulted by Gomez who wielded a knife and cut her cheek.

The second and third incidents, on September 7 and October 21, 2018, involved Gomez following his victims from public areas before forcibly assaulting them under the threat of a knife. News of Gomez's sentencing brings a close to the haunting series of attacks, which were pieced together and solved by the combined efforts of law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office's Cold Case Sexual Assault Initiative.

In their announcement, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and Chief Pamela Smith from the Metropolitan Police Department highlighted the dedication of the investigative team from the Sexual Assault Unit and the Cold Case Unit of the Sexual Assault Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marco Crocetti, Sharon Donovan, and Amy Zubrensky, who served on the prosecution team, were also commended for their persistence in bringing Gomez to justice. The U.S. Attorney's Office initiative, formed in February 2018, aims to solve and prosecute unsolved sexual assault cases, working in conjunction with multiple law enforcement agencies.

The case against Gomez came to a head after his arrest in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 7, 2023, following which he was brought back to Washington, D.C to face his charges.