A Garnerville high-risk sex offender with three prior convictions for kidnapping and rape has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for grabbing a woman who managed to avoid being kidnapped when she fought him off.
Eduardo Hernandez, 49, was sentenced Wednesday, June 3, to the prison term Rockland Judge Kevin Russo promised him earlier this year when he pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping.
On Sept. 14, 2025, the woman was on vacation visiting family and friends in Haverstraw.
According to Assistant District Attorney Kaitlin DeLuca, the woman was sitting on a patio outside a friend’s apartment when Hernandez grabbed her, covered her mouth with one hand, placed a screwdriver to her throat and told her to be quiet. The woman knocked the screwdriver from his hand and when he tried to cover her mouth with both hands, she kicked a patio table over and screamed for her friends to come help. Hernandez then fled in a car but they were able to get the license plate.
Police stopped the car the next day in Stony Point and he ran off but was soon caught. DeLuca said a search warrant led to the recovery of a set of screwdrivers from Hernandez that was missing the one he used in the attack on the woman.
“The danger that this man poses to the community cannot be understated,” Rockland District Attorney Thomas Walsh II said in a statement. “Three prior felony convictions for rape and kidnapping should have been enough, but this defendant chose to strike again. My office has zero tolerance for habitual, violent offenders who refuse to be rehabilitated.”
Hernandez was released from prison in 2022 after serving 19 years for three separate attacks on women.
On December 22, 2002, Hernandez grabbed a woman as she walked near the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. He put his hands over her eyes and mouth, wrapped a rope around her neck and dragged her into a wooded area where he got on top of her. She was able to break free of him and run off, the rope still around her neck.
But he wasn’t caught in that case until more than two years later, after DNA from the rope was matched to him. His DNA had been in the state database for four months following his arrest in a pair of attacks on the night of April 18, 2004.
That night, Hernandez first grabbed a 52-year-old woman walking on Cosgrove Avenue in Haverstraw. He put a rope around her neck, pulled her into a van and raped her. He threatened to kill her if she looked at him and then partially dressed her, took her purse and money, put a laundry bag over her head and ordered her out of the van before driving off.
Less than an hour later, Hernandez grabbed a 31-year-old woman by the neck as she did laundry in the basement of the Kensington Circle apartments. He dragged her behind the dryers and started wrapping electrical cords around her neck. When she struggled to get free and screamed, Hernandez fled.
She reported the attack and police arrested Hernandez that night. He pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping for those two attacks and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He had an additional five years tacked on to his prison term after pleading guilty in 2005 to second-degree kidnapping in the 2002 attack.
Hernandez was adjudicated a Level 3 sex offender, the highest risk to re-offend, prior to his release from prison four years ago.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: 14-year prison term in kidnapping case for Garnerville sex offender
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
