DA: Shirley man pleads guilty to raping woman in Coram woods
Jesse Diaz, 24, of Shirley, is led out of the Sixth Precinct in Selden for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip on Thursday, June 3, 2021. Credit: James Carbone
A Shirley man pleaded guilty to raping and strangling a woman in a wooded area of Coram in May 2021, Suffolk County prosecutors said.
Jesse Diaz, 30, entered the plea before Judge Karen Wilutis in the May 27 attack.
The victim, who survived, was walking alone at the time of the incident on a path off Route 112 and Skips Road as a shortcut home from a convenience store, prosecutors said.
“This plea offers the victim some relief from having to testify at trial, see the defendant and relive this brutal attack,” county District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement. “This plea also means the defendant is one step closer to being held fully accountable for the vicious crime he committed.”
Diaz, according to court documents and his own admission, got behind the victim and demanded she go with him. When she refused, Diaz grabbed the victim and pulled on her, prosecutors said. She scratched his face, along with screaming for help, but Diaz strangled her until she lost consciousness, prosecutors said.
The victim woke up to seeing Diaz drag her by the throat “with her feet trailing along the ground,” prosecutors said in a news release. She lost consciousness again and woke up face down in a wooded path, and Diaz raped her, then fled, prosecutors said.
The victim went home and later to Stony Brook University Hospital for her injuries, prosecutors said at the time. When Diaz was arrested June 2, 2021, his facial injuries matched what the victim reported, prosecutors said.
Diaz, who is represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, will return to court for sentencing on Aug. 8.
