Caught: rapist of 11-year-old girl

A Bronx man has been arrested and charged for allegedly raping an 11-year-old Throggs Neck girl. He also, according to reports, sent sexual text messages to her grandmother’s cell phone.

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced on Friday, September 24 that Dawud McKelvin, a 30-year-old residing at 955 Waring Avenue, has been indicted on 1st and 2nd degree Rape, 1st and 2nd-degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child, 1st and 2nd degree Criminal Sexual Act, three counts of Predatory Sexual Assault Against a Child, and Endangering the Welfare of a child.

The most serious of these offenses is actually not the rape charge but Predatory Sexual Assault Against a Child, which is a class A-II felony. If convincted of that charge, McKelvin could spend life in prison.

The alleged victim, Sahara Boyd, who lives in Throggs Neck Houses and is a student at P.S. 72.

Boyd went missing late on Tuesday, September 14, from her home at 560 Balcom Avenue.

At that time, rumors that Boyd’s grandmother may have received lewd text messages meant for the girl were unconfirmed.

Boyd reappeared in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Sunday, September 19 at around 11 a.m. It was the second time she had disappeared. Earlier in the year, she went missing on Friday, September 3 and Bronx police found her with McKelvin at a coffee shop.

Police are still uncertain of where Boyd went and what she did on the occasion of her second disappearance. But they have discovered that indeed, text messages were sent by McKelvin to the cell phone of Boyd’s grandmother, and that he had also “engaged in oral and vaginal sexual acts with the young girl on multiple occasions between February 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010,” according to the police report.

At the time of arrest, McKlevin claimed that he was in a romantic relationship with Boyd.

In a court report of McKelvin’s arrest, Yolanda Agostini, Boyd’s grandmother, is mentioned as having told police that she “received five multi-media pictures of a penis to her cellular phone.”

McKelvin also made a video statement for police in which he stated, “I sent pictures of my penis to Sahara’s grandmother’s phone.”

Agostini confirmed for police that the text messages “made her feel threatened as well as caused her annoyance and alarm,” which meet the requirements for the charge of Aggravated Harrassment.

A second court document states that between February 12 and August 22, 2010, McKelvin had vaginal, oral, and anal sex with Boyd, on multiple occasions.

For now, the rapist is being held without bail and will appear in Supreme Court on Thursday, October 28.