Cambridge — 32-year-old Cambridge resident Marcos Colono was held on a $1 million bail after allegedly raping a 11-year-old boy and stabbing his father with a knife in a Pearl Street apartment on Aug. 26.Colono was reportedly arrested Thursday morning while walking in the Cambridgeport neighborhood where he is from and where the crime took place. He was arraigned in the Cambridge District Court Thursday afternoon but did not appear in the courtroom. He is accused of two counts of rape on a child, armed assault to murder and home invasion.
Police have been searching for the suspect in the brutal crime from last month at 220 Pearl St. where a masked man reportedly broke into a first floor apartment around 1 a.m. with a large butcher knife and attacked a man and his child.
Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Katharine Folger said Colono stacked the father and son on top of each other while he rummaged through the house for money. Colono then allegedly raped the boy at knifepoint while his father was forced to listen.
Police reportedly found the victims lying in a pool of blood in the apartment. There was blood on the door knob of the apartment door as well.
"The apartment was a bloody mess," said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone at a press conference Thursday 1 p.m. at the Cambridge Police Department.
"Today this man has a name, he has an identity and he's behind bars," said Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley at a press conference with Leone and Cambridge Police Commission Robert Haas, among other officials.
The 53-year-old dad, a researcher at Harvard’s Kennedy School, was reportedly stabbed eight to 10 times in the upper chest and neck and three times in his back, underwent surgery and was last reported to be in critical condition. According to Folger, doctors said the attacker tried to decapitate the victim.
The 11-year-old son also suffered injuries and was later released from the hospital.
The knife used in the assault was left behind -- as well as a bloody fingerprint investigators say connect Colono to an unsolved home invasion in Brighton where two college-aged women were raped in September 2008. They also have other forensic evidence linking Colono to the Cambridge and Brighton crimes.
He has not yet been formally charged with the Brighton incident, in which two women, then 18 and 23, were raped inside their Commonwealth Avenue apartment at about 8:45 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2008. A warrant charging him with that offense is expected to be sought in the near future.
"We believe at this time, there is no personal connection between the defendant and the 53-year-old man or his 11-year-old son. It looks to be a home invasion with no personal connection between those involved," Leone added. "At this time, it's unclear what the exact motivation was. Robbery may be a motivating factor."
Colono's 18-year-old brother Michael Colono, was killed by Harvard student Alexander Pring-Wilson in a drunken stabbing in Cambridgeport in 2003. Pring-Wilson pleaded guilty in 2008 and received a two-year sentence in prison.
Leone did not have an explanation and said it is a coincidence.
Colono's mother and sister were present in court but did not speak Thursday.
Colono's lawyer, Ben Selman, tried to argue for a lower bail calling the $1 million cash amount "excessive" based on his client's personal history. He said Colono has no past convictions and only two minor offences on his record -- shoplifting and assault and battery from more than a decade ago. He argued that one partial fingerprint is the only thing that links his client to the crime scenes with no other positive identification.
Judge Roanne Sragow said the bail amount is appropriate given the facts and the nature of crime in this case.
Colono will have to meet several requirements, including wearing a GPS bracelet and having no contact with children until his pre-trial hearing scheduled for Nov. 9, Sragow said.
Colono was born in and lived in Cambridge his whole life and has a 15-year-old son, Selman said. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin, dropped out in tenth grade but later earned his GED in 1994. He has been working in construction as a labourer. He has family and friends in the area has no ties to any other community, Selman added.
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