A sex offender convicted in a rash of home break-ins and two sexual assaults in the fall of 2016 in Boston's South End was sentenced to decades in prison Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.
Ronald Brown, 60, was convicted on 21 charges, including aggravated rape, kidnapping, witness intimidation photographing an unsuspecting nude person and breaking and entering. During his sentencing, he refused to follow the judge's order, at one point yelling an expletive in court and attacking court officers who tried to remove him from the room, according to the district attorney's office.
The district attorney alleged that in 2016 Brown targeted women, watching apartments, breaking into homes and stealing personal items before things escalated to violence.
But Brown's "menacing legacy," as it was described by one of the victims in the case, began with a rape in 1986, the district attorney said. After serving a 25- to 30-year sentence in that case, he was released just months before committing more crimes, according to the district attorney's office.
On Sept. 22, 2016, Brown broke into a woman's home on Warren Avenue and stole shoes, handbags, a car key and other items. The following day, on Sept. 23, he staked out an apartment on Dwight Street, recording video of the front. At the same address on Sept. 27 and 28, prosecutors say he recorded a woman through her bedroom window when she came out of the shower to get dressed.
Then, prosecutors say, on Oct. 2, Brown broke into an apartment on Milford Street while the woman slept and stole her clothes, purses, shoes, computer and cash.
On Oct. 3 he went back to the Dwight Street apartment and took photos and personal documents, prosecutors say. On Oct. 6 he went to a different apartment in the Dwight Street building and stole thousands of dollars' in jewelry, shoes and handbags.
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Finally, on Oct. 11, Brown broke into a basement apartment on Calerdon Street, where prosecutors say he blindfolded, bound and gagged two women, raped one of them and sexually assaulted the other. According to prosecutors, he forced the woman he raped to shower to wash away evidence. He also stole the victims' electronics and demanded passwords.
Detectives eventually identified Brown because one of the victims found his name on a prescription pill bottle found on the floor. The other reported he was wearing red camouflage clothing. Brown was arrested on Oct. 12, 2016, at the Pine Street Inn shelter, where he had been staying. His backpack held some of the stolen items, as well as handwritten notes with personal information on the women he targeted. He was also reportedly wearing red camouflage when he had returned to the shelter on Oct. 11.
"He is a real and present danger to society. He has illustrated no success at rehabilitation. He has taken no accountability whatsoever and shown not a hint of remorse. He should under no circumstances be allowed the liberty to terrorize another human being, community or society ever again,” one victim said during impact statements.
Brown has been held since his October 2016 arrest. He was sentenced to 72 to 105 yers in prison after a jury trial. brown did not attend his own trial, only watching by Zoom.
