Sunday, March 27, 2011

Man Who Burned Girlfriend Sentenced to Prison: DA by Anna Gustafson - Queens Chronicle

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An Ozone Park man who pleaded guilty to brutally attacking his girlfriend with a hot iron and slicing her with a razor blade in the same room where their children slept was sentenced to 13 years in prison, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Eric Persaud, 36, also made more than 400 phones calls from Rikers Island in an attempt to stop his 27-year-old girlfriend from testifying against him at trial, Brown said.

“His actions were both cruel and sadistic,” Brown said in a prepared statement.
Persaud’s attorney, Judah Maltz, said he had no comment on the sentence handed down by Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak on March 16.

According to the charges, Persaud began an argument on April 30, 2009 with his live-in girlfriend, the mother of his two children, over her having called the police a week prior regarding an incident in which he broke her computer and smashed her home phone. During the argument, Persaud held a knife to the woman’s throat and told her if she called the police again he would kill her or their children, according to the charges.

He then led her into the bedroom and told her he would have to scar her for calling the police, Brown said.

Persaud proceeded to tell her to plug in an iron and burn her face with it, the DA said. When his girlfriend refused, Persaud told her he would burn her face and if she screamed and woke the children, who were sleeping in the bedroom, he would scald them too, according to the charges.

After being forced to kneel on the ground, Persaud forced a towel into her mouth and placed the iron on both cheeks three times and used a razor to slash her face twice, Brown said.

The woman was hospitalized for 11 days following the attack, the DA said.