QUEENS, NY — A Queens man was sentenced Thursday to 65 years to life in prison for raping three women in Hempstead over a five-year period, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced.
Adell Hardwick, 36, was convicted earlier this month of three counts of first-degree rape, predatory sexual assault, and criminal sexual acts, after a bench trial before Judge Teresa Corrigan. Hardwick was linked to the crimes through DNA evidence gathered after his arrest in 2020 for one of the assaults.
The court heard that Hardwick attacked his victims between 2015 and 2020, targeting women in isolated areas of Hempstead. “DNA evidence collected after each of the attacks was essential to finally connecting this defendant to each of these horrific crimes,” Donnelly said in a statement.
Hardwick’s first attack occurred in January 2015, when he lured a 42-year-old woman to an abandoned house on Main Street and raped her. In June 2019, he dragged a 51-year-old woman into bushes near Denton Green Park, where she was assaulted. In January 2020, Hardwick strangled and raped a 55-year-old woman in an abandoned garage before fleeing.
Each victim was taken to Nassau University Medical Center, where DNA samples were collected and later matched to Hardwick after his arrest in April 2020.
Deputy Bureau Chief Daryl Levy prosecuted the case.