Man receives 25 years to life in prison for series of sexual assaults in 2022 on Manhattan’s waterfront

A 29-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for a series of sexual assaults on the Manhattan waterfront, prosecutors at the District Attorney’s Office said July 1. Carl Phanor, who pleaded guilty to his crimes, is alleged to have targeted three women between March and November 2022.

At around 6 a.m. on March 27, he attacked a 39-year-old woman jogging along the Hudson River Greenway, prosecutors said. As the woman approached Pier 46 on the edge of Greenwich Village, Phanor reportedly approached the woman on a bicycle. He then choked her, raped her and stole her cellphone.

On October 6, 2022, Phanor allegedly attacked a 48-year-old woman near E. 37th St. and FDR Drive in Midtown. He approached her from behind, prosecutors said, and ripped open her jeans, then fled with her credit cards and again her phone.

On Nov. 3, at around 5:45 a.m., Phanor reportedly returned to the Hudson River Greenway – this time near Pier 45. As a 43-year-old woman jogged by, he grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground, according to prosecutors. He then choked and raped her before fleeing with her credit card, phone and other belongings, prosecutors said. He used a CitiBike to make his escape.

In this last attack, the victim was seriously injured, the prosecutor’s office said. She suffered a fracture of the cervical spine, several broken ribs, a broken sternum and a ruptured lung.

A witness to the third attack said: CBS News that she saw the victim “walking around disoriented. (She) was not wearing shoes and was holding her eye.”

Phanor was arrested later that same morning while attempting to use his last victim’s stolen credit card to purchase a ticket at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He also reportedly used a stolen credit card at a Target store.

“Carl Phanor has been held accountable for a series of heinous sexual assaults,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Phanor’s violent attacks have caused far more than physical harm, as many of the survivors continue to suffer deep emotional and psychological scars, and I stand with them as they continue to heal and process their trauma.”

According to the Department of Justice, warm weather appears to be leading to an increase in reports of rapes and attempted rapes. The incidents are similar to another series of rapes that occurred in and around the UWS’s Riverside Park in June and July 2023, involving four female victims. Two men, 21-year-old Luc Tassiem Noubissi and 32-year-old Jhonatan Cortes-Lopez, were charged in connection with the attacks after being arrested in August 2023. The two suspects in this series of rapes are believed to be unrelated.

Police also arrested UWS resident Jermaine Longmire, 43, in connection with the attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman who was sunbathing alone near Great Hill in northern Central Park on June 24. She was able to fight off her attacker after he reportedly exposed himself and jumped on her. A July 12 incident initially reported as an attempted rape outside a UWS gym was later downgraded to assault and is now considered a domestic violence incident.

Rapes citywide are up 10.6 percent through July 14 compared to the same period last year. In the 6th Precinct, where the Hudson River Greenway assaults occurred, reported rapes are down 50 percent compared to the same period last year. In the 17th Precinct – the scene of the E. 37th St. assault in 2022 – they are still slightly up year-over-year (6 incidents versus 5 incidents), a 20 percent increase. According to the NYPD, rape cases in this precinct are flat two-year over two years.