A former Morristown man was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in state prison for his role in the 2011 gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in town.
Aquil Malik, now 23 and living in Orange, was 17 at the time of the crime but was tried as an adult. He was convicted in November of two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and one count of second-degree aggravated sexual assault.
Two others previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated criminal sexual contact. Each got one year’s probation, after being incarcerated following their arrests in 2012.
They are DeQuan McDaniel of Dover, who was a juvenile tried as an adult, and Tyrec Phillips of Morristown, who was 18 at the time of the assault.
Malik met the victim, who was drunk, while socializing with a group of youths near the Lafayette Learning Center on Sept. 4, 2011.
The girl became ill, vomited and asked for a ride home.
She testified that she passed out in a vehicle and awoke to find Malik on top of her; she repeatedly said “stop,” the defendants testified.
The victim was sexually assaulted “while she was in and out of consciousness. Upon becoming aware of what was occurring the victim told the defendant to stop, but he did not,” according to a joint statement this week from Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp and Morristown Police Chief Pete Demnitz.
Police cracked the case by asking the victim to phone one of the defendants, and monitoring the conversation.
Knapp said Superior Court Judge Salem Ahto denied a pair of motions by Malik’s lawyer, who alleged that the prosecution failed to preserve text messages and turn them over, and argued that the verdict should be overturned for lack of evidence.
“Judge Ahto ruled that there was more than enough evidence” to convict Malik, Knapp said in his statement.
Assistant Prosecutors Laura Magnone and Eryn Fernandez-Ledon tried the case.
Knapp thanked the Morristown police, praising Sgt. Tyrone Jackson, and the prosecutor’s Sex Crimes/Child Endangerment Unit.
