A twisted rapist, who allegedly beat a New York City mom nearly to death on her way home from work, was out on parole when he attacked her.
Miguel Jiraud, 30, was charged with attempted murder at his arraignment hearing on Friday for allegedly beating Diana Aguelo, 44, of Astoria, Queens, while she was biking home on Randall’s Island around 11:30pm on May 16.
The vicious attack left the single mother-of-two unconscious and in a coma and in need of two emergency surgeries, including removing part of her skull.
‘She almost died…they had to resuscitate her,’ her daughter, Stephanie Rodas, 21, sobbed to the New York Post. ‘She’s still in critical condition right now – even though she came through the second one, thank God she did.’
Jiraud was on parole for a rape charge at the time of the attack and was wearing an ankle monitor, which police used to help trace him before his arrest on Friday.
The rapist allegedly called police after the attack to let them know where Agudelo was six hours after he attacked her, sources told The Post.
Police later found her stolen e-bike near the East River and Jiraud’s ankle monitor indicated that he was traveling around 16 mph near the scene, sources told The Post.
It later showed that he went back to where Aguedelo was and where he called 911.
Jiraud, who was living in a homeless shelter on the island, insisted to police that he just ‘found her’ and that he was not the source of the crime.
‘I was the one that found her and stood there for an hour and went to work late,’ he later told a reporter who asked if he beat her, before showing his unmarred hands.
The mother-of-two, who remains unconscious, suffered facial fractures, a cracked skull, and a broken nose after the attack.
Her own daughter didn’t recognize her when she saw her for the first time after the attack, she told the New York Daily News.
‘She was so swollen you couldn’t even recognize her,’ she told the outlet. ‘Her eye was black, pitch-black. When you opened her eye, it was bloodshot red. She couldn’t even move. She couldn’t talk. She was on life support. She was a bloody mess.’
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny called the beating ‘one of the worst beatings I’ve ever seen.’
Rodas was informed by doctors her mother could ‘succumb to her injuries at any time,’ she told the New York Daily News.
Doctors fear the 44-year-old won’t be able to use the right side of her body and could lose vision in one eye. She may also suffer from life-long seizure problems, The Post reported.
‘She will have memory issues. We don’t know what we she will remember. There’s a possibility that she could forget about me,’ the 21-year-old cried to The Daily News.
Agudelo’s workplace, the Museum of the City of New York, started a GoFundMe.
‘Our thoughts are with Diana, her loved ones, and our colleagues during this difficult time,’ it wrote in a Facebook post.
‘We are devastated that Diana Agudelo, a cherished member of our staff at the Museum of the City of New York, was violently attacked while biking home through Randall’s Island.’
The fundraiser has garnered more than $51,000 as of Saturday morning.
Jiraud was previously convicted of raping a 28-year-old woman in February 2011 when he was 16 years old. He choked the woman on a Bronx rooftop before sexually assaulting her.
He was released on parole for the crime in August and it is set to expire in 2040, sources told The Post.
He was convinced in 2013 with a sentence of 12 years.
‘What’s the point of parole if it’s not protecting anyone?’ Rodas questioned to The Post. ‘It’s more like giving them freedom for what? To do what they did to my mom.
‘He went from raping someone to attempted murder, and God knows if he’s going to be successful and leave me without a mom.’
The young woman, a student at John Jay College, called her mother her best friend and someone who loved music and travel, she told The Post.
She said her mother had the ‘kindest and sweetest soul you’ve ever met.’
‘If I could describe her, I would just say being around her was like eating a cupcake. It was so sweet, it would make you feel warm and good inside,’ she told The Daily News.
‘I just want to wake up from this bad nightmare, just wake up next to my mom. I just want to give my mom a big hug, but I can’t even hold her, I can’t even touch her,’ she told The Post.