An ex-con who raped and murdered a 10-year-old girl from Queens is back in prison after sexually assaulting several older women while on parole.
Charles Rowe, 56, was able to take advantage of Kathy Hochul’s ‘Less is More’ act, making it easier to stay out of jail even after he was hit by a felony car theft charge in December, according to the New York Post.
The repeat offender was allowed to stay on the street and is now again accused of rape and assault.
Rowe was originally released on life parole from Sullivan County Correctional Facility on January 19, 2022, after serving nearly 35 years incarcerated.
Despite being under close state surveillance, Rowe was arrested on grand larceny charges for allegedly stealing a van from a U-Haul storage facility in Jamaica on December 9, less than a year later.
Rowe was originally paroled from Sullivan County Correctional Facility on January 19, 2022, after serving nearly 35 years incarcerated
The convicted killer remained free despite missing not one but two court hearings – during which time he reportedly went through a violent crime spree in Queens, assaulting one woman and raping another, before finally being incarcerated earlier this month. according to the Post.
In both cases, he allegedly threatened to kill his victims, court records show.
Rowe allegedly raped the 69-year-old victim on March 13, outside the same U-Haul storage facility from which he was accused of stealing a van in December 2022.
“If you don’t do what I want, I’m going to kill you,” Rowe allegedly told the woman before raping her and fleeing the scene.
About a month later, on April 25, Rowe returned to the facility and allegedly assaulted a 61-year-old woman after catching him going through her belongings.
“Let’s not make it a murder,” he told her, before slashing her neck and chest and punching her in the face.
Rowe was finally arrested on May 13 and faced multiple charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree sexual assault, predatory assault, first- and second-degree robbery, possession of a weapon, burglary and petty theft.
He is expected to appear in court on June 28 and is being held on Riker’s Island on $250,000 bail or $750,000 bond, the district attorney’s office said Monday, according to the New York Post.
Rowe’s attorney denied allegations that Rowe was involved in auto theft, but that he was simply hanging out with a girl in the stolen U-Haul van, trying to get cozy.
His lawyer claimed the suspect had met the requirements of his parole and asked Judge Stephanie Zaro of the Queens Criminal Court to release him without bail, insisting that his client should not be punished for having a ‘past’.
“Judge, I believe it would be a total miscarriage of justice to place my client in jail where he cannot post bail for a D non-violent [felony] felony where my client was allegedly sitting in a van,” legal aid attorney Paul Montgomery told Zaro, according to the transcript.
The judge referred to Rowe’s criminal record and the fact that he has been repeatedly referred for psychiatric help while in prison, but agreed to release him under supervision.
“If the allegations were more violent, of course I wouldn’t be doing this. But I will do supervised release to [parole’s] discretion,” Zaro said, according to the Post.
The judge released Rowe without bail, pending a preliminary hearing in his case to revoke his parole. Rowe failed to show up for a hearing on Jan. 12 and Jan. 31, a DOCCS spokesperson told the New York Post. The hearing was once again moved to March 17.
Although authorities had numerous opportunities to put the criminal behind bars, they repeatedly released him.
Rowe is the “poster child for parole violation,” a law enforcement source told The Post.
“He has committed one of the most heinous crimes I have seen in 40 years, and he is robbing a car less than a year after being released,” the source said.
Rowe was originally sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for brutally raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl in her bedroom in 1987.
Rowe was a guest staying at her family’s home when he was left alone with the young girl, then raped and stabbed her to death.
The young girl was left naked and dead on her blood-soaked bedroom floor. She was found by her family on Christmas morning, according to a New York Times article at the time.
The Less is More bill was signed into law in 2021 by New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. It makes it more difficult to send criminals back to prison for violating their parole.
“Thanks to the governor’s ‘Less is More’ it is almost impossible to violate anyone,” a police source told The Post.
Lowering standards is responsible for fending off a woman from this monster and raping another woman in two heinous crimes where both women received death threats.
Rowe remains behind bars on Rikers Island pending a return to court on June 28.
On September 17, 2021, Governor Hochul signed the Community Supervision Revocation Act (the Less is More Act)
“For less is more, he would have been in jail where he couldn’t victimize innocent people,” the police source said.
Before “Less is More,” a parole who was re-arrested on a criminal charge could be held for up to 90 days between their preliminary and final revocation hearings, or as long as probable cause or an offense was found.