On February 28, 2025, Dakiem Demonia, also known as “Knox” (3/7/2003), formerly of 1315 Lower Broadway in the City of Schenectady was sentenced to thirty (30) years in prison based on prior guilty pleas on three separate Schenectady County indictments encompassing a series of violent crimes in the City of Schenectady during the last week of May 2024. Mr. Demonia pled guilty, in Schenectady County Court on December 3, 2024 to one count of Rape in the First Degree, a class B violent felony in violation of New York State Penal Law Section 130.35(1), one count of Attempted Rape in the First Degree, a class C violent felony in violation of New York State Penal Law Sections 110.00 and 130.35(1), and one count of Arson in the Second Degree, a class B violent felony and a violation of New York State Penal Law Section 150.15. Mr. Demonia was sentenced today by Schenectady County Court Judge Matthew J. Sypniewski.
Mr. Demonia received ten (10) years in prison on each of his guilty pleas, with each sentence running consecutively to one another, for a total prison term of thirty (30) years. In addition to the thirty (30) years in prison, Mr. Demonia, received twenty (20) years of post-release supervision, commonly known as parole, the maximum parole period allowed by law for these crimes. Additionally, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and at sentencing full orders of protection for his victims were issued until the year 2082.
Mr. Demonia previously pled guilty to Attempted Rape in the First Degree, for a May 27th, 2024, incident at his residence at 1315 Lower Broadway. Mr. Demonia had met and chatted with a woman on a social media application, inviting her to his residence to hang out. Shortly after the woman met him at his residence, he pulled a knife on her and tried to forcibly compel her to engage in sexual acts with him. The victim fled from his apartment after being cut with a knife in her struggle to flee from Mr. Demonia. The victim ran back onto lower Broadway, where good Samaritans hearing the commotion contacted the police. By the time Schenectady Police arrived Mr. Demonia had fled the scene. The victim’s account was heavily corroborated by security video from the building and the visible cut to her forearm.
Mr. Demonia pled guilt to Arson in the Second Degree, for a May 29, 2024, incident also at his residence at 1315 Lower Broadway. After the Attempted Rape incident Mr. Demonia was not located by the Schenectady Police and had not been seen near his apartment at 1315 Lower Broadway. Mr. Demonia returned to the address in the middle of the night, on May 29, 2024, and set fire to his apartment while many other residents of the multi-unit apartment building were home and asleep. The call for a fire at that address came into the Schenectady County Unified Communications Center at approximately 3:08 a.m. The fire appeared to have been started in retaliation for eviction proceedings that the landlord had undertaken against Mr. Demonia. The apartment building was not engulfed in flames but did sustain smoke and other damage significant enough to require the other residents to temporarily move out of the building. Again, Mr. Demonia had fled the scene prior to police arrival but was identified as the arsonist through security video.
Mr. Demonia also pled guilty to Rape in the First Degree, for an incident on May 31, 2024, in a wooded area within Central Park in Schenectady. On that date Mr. Demonia came to the park in a car driven by the victim, whom he had met the day before. Once the victim and Mr. Demonia parked in a secluded area, Mr. Demonia again brandished a knife demanding that the victim engage in sex acts with him. When the victim tried to run, Mr. Demonia pulled her into a wooded area of the park where he choked and sexually assaulted her. Mr. Demonia then stole her purse and fled from the scene. The victim found a good Samaritan in the park who called the police after she reported to the good Samaritan that she had just been sexually assaulted. The victim’s account was corroborated by her physical condition at the scene and forensic evidence. The forensic evidence was specifically seminal fluid of Mr. Demonia’s inside of the victim’s leggings that were collected by the Schenectady Police and tested by the New York State Forensic Investigation Center.
Mr. Demonia’s weeklong string of violent felonies came to an end on June 1, 2024, when City of Schenectady Patrol Officers, who had been advised that Mr. Demonia frequented certain areas in the city of Schenectady observed him walking down the street. Patrol Officers immediately tried to detain him, which led to a foot pursuit. Mr. Demonia was ultimately apprehended by police canine Leonidas, who took him down allowing police officers to arrest him. Leonidas is a police canine handled by Deputy Daniel Coppola of the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office, who responded with Leonidas to assist Schenectady Police in apprehending Mr. Demonia once the foot pursuit began.
District Attorney Robert M. Carney stated that, “It was clear to us that Mr. Demonia is a clear and present danger as a violent man repeatedly preying on women he encounters and willing to set fire to a home endangering the lives of people sound asleep at the time. It was important to our office that he receive separate sentences for each of these violent crimes, and that these sentences be consecutive to one another. The total sentence of thirty (30) years accomplishes that and I thank ADAs DeMatteo and Carson for their hard work here in bringing this to conclusion.”
City Court Bureau Chief Michael DeMatteo, who is also the District Attorney’s Office’s Arson Prosecutor prosecuted the arson indictment and Special Victims Bureau Chief John J. Carson prosecuted the two sexual assault indictments. Mr. Demonia was represented by attorney APD John DellaRatta, of the Schenectady County Public Defender’s Office. Schenectady County Court Judge Matthew J. Sypniewski presided.