A Bronx man may spend the rest of his life in prison for raping two women and sexually assaulting a third over the course of six days inside his apartment, with one victim using a food delivery app to send a desperate plea for help.
Kemoy Royal was sentenced to 34 years to life in prison after being convicted in May on rape and other sex crimes, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said Friday.
"The defendant brutally sexually assaulted three women. Thanks to the quick thinking of one of the victims, we were able to hold this sexual predator accountable, and prevent him from terrorizing additional victims," said Clark.
Royal encountered his first victim on a dating app before meeting in person on June 13, 2022, according to the investigation. He invited the 27-year-old to his Eastchester apartment after the two had spoken for a few days over the app, where he raped her and forced her to perform sex acts, the DA's office said.
The very next day, Royal was on the street when met the second victim, a 26-year-old woman whom he claimed he knew through a friend. He lured her back to his home, then refused to let her leave and threatened to kill her. He tried to force her into a sex act and choked her before finally letting her leave hours later.
On June 18, 2022, the third victim went to Royal's home after talking to him over a dating app. He didn't let the 24-year-old leave the apartment, took her phone and threatened to kill her, prosecutors said. Similar to the previous two victims, Royal strangled and raped her.
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The call for help came in the form of an online Grubhub food order to the Chipper Truck Café in Yonkers the next morning. Surveillance video from inside the restaurant shows the employees receive the order for a Irish breakfast sandwich, a hamburger and something else: a plea for help.
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"When I see the message on the paper, I said just call police and don’t send the food because this is something else. It’s an emergency," said owner Valentine Bernejo.
Alice Bernejo says she always reminds her employees to read the entire order.
"I drove them crazy saying read the fine note, the fine print, you have to read it. So they know to check and read it before anything goes into the bag and thankfully that’s what saved the girl was them doing that," she said.
The message stated that the woman was being held hostage by a man she barely knew. Under the additional instructions section on the Grubhub order, the woman wrote in part "please call the police" and "please don't make it obvious."
The workers called police, and officers responded to a home on Pratt Avenue just after 6 a.m. Royal answered the door thinking the food was arriving, but instead it was police, who arrested him. The woman was safely rescued from the home.
Attorney information for Royal, 34, was not immediately available.
