Adell Hardwick, 36, of Queens gets 65 years to life in Hempstead rapes, DA says

A Queens man was sentenced to 65 years to life in prison for raping three women in Hempstead between 2015 and 2020, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said Thursday.

Adell Hardwick, 36, of Queens, was convicted of three counts of first-degree rape and other charges on Sept. 6, authorities said.

Immediately following the attacks, each woman notified police and was transported to Nassau University Medical Center where a DNA swab was collected during a sexual assault examination. DNA evidence obtained after Hardwick's 2020 arrest following his third attack linked him to the previous two, officials said.

"DNA evidence collected after each of the attacks was essential to finally connecting this defendant to each of these horrific crimes," Donnelly said in a news release. "Today’s prison sentence ensures that Adell Hardwick will never harm another woman again in Nassau County."

On Jan. 25, 2015, Hardwick approached a 42-year-old woman and walked with her to an abandoned house at 194 Main Street in Hempstead where he raped her, officials said.

More than four years later, Hardwick "grabbed" a 51-year-old woman after she met with friends at Denton Green Park in Hempstead on June 4, 2019, and "dragged her into the bushes where he raped her," according to the district attorney.

On Jan. 30, 2020, Hardwick approached a 55-year-old woman on the street in Hempstead and forced her into an abandoned garage, where the district attorney said he "violently strangled" and raped her before fleeing the scene. Like Hardwick's other victims, she contacted police and was brought to NUMC for an examination where a DNA sample was collected.

Detectives with Nassau police’s special victims squad arrested Hardwick for the January 2020 attack on April 23, 2020, the district attorney said. He was positively identified as the attacker in all three rapes after a check swab obtained following his arrest was compared to the DNA samples retrieved after each attack.

Following a bench trial before Judge Teresa Corrigan, Hardwick was convicted on Sept. 6 of three counts of first-degree rape, a violent felony, predatory sexual assault and three counts of first-degree criminal sexual act. He was acquitted of one count of predatory sexual assault.

Scott Gross, a Garden City-based attorney representing Hardwick, was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.