Crime Watch

Amityville man charged in West Hempstead kidnapping, rape

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Nassau County police have arrested and charged a 24-year-old Amityville man with kidnapping and raping a 21-year-old woman in West Hempstead in December. Earlier this month, he was also charged in an unrelated armed robbery and sexual abuse of a woman in Great Neck.

According to detectives, Levar Burton brandished a handgun as he approached the woman on Terminal Road in West Hempstead on Dec. 27 at around 4 a.m. He then took her to an unknown location where he sexually assaulted her, police said.

Authorities said they have DNA evidence connecting Burton to the rape. Officials called the crime “heinous.”

After the attack, Burton ran off, detectives said. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The other incident took place on March 7 at 4:15 a.m. According to police, a woman walking down Middle Neck Road in Great Neck was approached from behind by a man with a knife. When he demanded money, she refused, and the suspect then touched the woman inappropriately, stole two phones and fled, officials said.

An investigation led police to identify Burton as the suspect, and he was arrested at his Albany Avenue home in Amityville on March 12.

He was charged on March 20 with second-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault. He was arraigned in 1st District Court in Hempstead on March 21.

At press time, police did not say what led them to Burton.

His Garden City-based attorney, Samuel Rieff, said he believed his client would eventually be found not guilty in both cases. “We’re confident that he will be exonerated once all of the evidence is revealed,” Reiff said, declining further comment.

At a March 21 news conference, Lt. Richard LeBrun, commanding officer of the NCPD’s Public Information Office, implored anyone with information about these cases to call the Nassau County Special Victims Squad at (516) 573 4022.