Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced on Tuesday, July 11, that a Bronx couple was arraigned on charges relating to a violent, armed home invasion and robbery during which they repeatedly assaulted a woman, an ex-girlfriend of the male defendant, in a Yorktown house during the middle of the night earlier this year in March.

Rocah said in the context of the announcement, “This alleged violent home invasion by a former intimate partner and his accomplice is a stark reminder that domestic violence knows no boundaries and can take many different forms. Our Domestic Violence Bureau is dedicated to vigorously prosecuting the most violent cases in any form while ensuring survivors receive full support and assistance.”

The defendants, Darling Read, 35, and Jovanda Paredes, 29, were arraigned before Judge Susan Cacace on July 5 in Westchester County Court, and remain in custody at Westchester County Jail, according to the prosecution. A Westchester County grand jury charged the defendants with acting in concert in relation to the following offenses:

• four counts of burglary in the first degree, felonies;
• three counts of robbery in the first degree, felonies;
• two counts of criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, felonies;
• criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a felony;
• criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, a felony;
• two counts of assault in the second degree, felonies; and
• unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, a misdemeanor.

Read was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a felony.

As alleged in the indictment, on March 17, 2023, at approximately 2:42 a.m., the defendants unlawfully entered a Yorktown home in Westchester County, located about 38 miles north of midtown Manhattan, where the victim, Read’s ex-girlfriend, was staying. The defendants allegedly woke the victim and chased her into a bathroom where they allegedly repeatedly kicked and punched her in the head and body, and prevented her from leaving.

According to the indictment, the defendants also allegedly hit the victim in the head with a hard object, and were armed with an un-serialized semi-automatic pistol, known as a ghost gun, which they allegedly used to threaten the victim. They are also charged with allegedly stealing two iPhones.

According to the prosecution, The Yorktown Police Department arrested the defendants in The Bronx within hours of the incident, following an investigation with the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, the NYPD and the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force.

With assistance from the NYPD, prosecution officials said Yorktown police executed a search warrant on a storage unit in The Bronx rented by Paredes, where police recovered the gun used during the alleged incident. Police also obtained surveillance video of the defendants entering and leaving the residence and storage facility the night of the alleged incident.

The case is being heard before Capeci in Westchester County Court, and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Paige Pirtle, under the supervision of Domestic Violence Bureau Chief Joyce Miller, both of the Special Prosecutions Division.

A person or persons arrested and charged with a crime or crimes is/are deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.