Illegal immigrant who raped Ohio woman claims he was ‘possessed by a demon’
A Nicaraguan man who was deported from the US five times has been sentenced to 19 years behind bars for raping an Ohio woman — claiming that he committed the depraved act because he was “possessed by a demon.”
German Mathews, 40, pulled his hoodie over his head before sexually assaulting the developmentally disabled woman on April 29 while she walked to a Forest Park bus stop, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
His hands were “covered in the victim’s blood” after he viciously beat the 44-year-old woman in the head and face, police Sgt. Jackie Dreyer said.
The brute, who was still on the woman when police arrived in response to a 91l call, tried to flee but was quickly arrested.
The victim suffered head injuries and multiple facial fractures, Dreyer said Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
She said the assault was one of the most brutal crimes on a complete stranger she has ever investigated in her more than 20 years in law enforcement.
Judge Alison Hatheway sentenced Mathews, who pleaded guilty in November to rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, to 19 years in prison.
Mathews’ attorney, James Bogen, said his client had stolen liquor from a convenience store and was intoxicated during the attack, adding that he has no recollection of it.
Bogen said Mathews “was horrified” when he showed him a cop’s bodycam video that captured some of the assault.
Mathews told authorities he felt like was “possessed by a demon” at the time, the Enquirer reported
“He feels terrible about what he did,” the attorney told the court, adding that the person who attacked the victim “is not the German Mathews you see here today.”
Mathews had likely experienced alcohol-induced psychosis, Bogen said.
Mathews, who also goes by the name Hernan Mateos, has been deported five times but has repeatedly returned to the US, where Bogen said he sought to escape poverty.
He first entered the US illegally in 2005 and was caught by the Border Patrol in Laredo, Texas, according to Local 12.
Miami police records reportedly show he was arrested a few weeks later for DUI and driving without a valid license.
He was arrested three more times in Miami — in 2006 for driving without a valid license, in 2009 for disorderly intoxication and in 2012 for sexual battery and false imprisonment.
Prosecutors chose not to pursue a conviction in the 2012 case, according to records cited by Local 12.
In a July 2017 criminal complaint, Mathews admitted to rafting across the Rio Grande into Texas.
The next day, he was convicted and sentenced to time served — one day — and fined $10, the outlet reported.