Bruce Sterling will be sentenced the after being convicted for the second time for the 2002 rape of a New Brunswick woman.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- One of Middlesex County's most notorious rapists is due to be sentenced Monday morning for the second time for raping a New Brunswick woman in her home in 2002.
Bruce Sterling, 44, who is already serving more than 40 years in prison for other sex attacks, will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas for his 2014 conviction -- his second -- for armed burglary, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, terroristic threats, and other weapons counts, for his assault on the victim who was then 21years old.
Sterling, a former hospital emergency room worker, walked into the victim's home in mid-afternoon, threatened her, struck her, and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint before fleeing, according to Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua, who prosecuted Sterling.
Three years after the crime, Sterling was connected to the case through DNA evidence obtained when North Brunswick police arrested him on another matter, Bevacqua said.
Sterling was previously found guilty in the New Brunswick attack, but won a new trial in an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
In February 2007, Sterling was sent to prison for burglarizing a North Brunswick home, raping a 21-year-old Rutgers University student, a 25-year-old New Brunswick woman and a 31-year-old Edison woman after sneaking into their apartments between July 2002 and May 2005. His trials were in 2006.
Two of the attacks, including the 21-year-old New Brunswick woman and the Rutgers student, were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013, but the case involving the Rutgers student was not retried because the victim did not want to relive the case, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey.
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