UPDATE: Home Invasion Suspect Confessed To Crimes, Prosecutors Say

The Fort Washington man accused of a in Bethesda, Wheaton and Temple Hills last week confessed to his crimes, a prosecutor said in a Montgomery County courthouse Tuesday.

Kevin Darnell Ray, 33, who was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Montgomery County, was placed on no-bond status by a Montgomery County District Court judge. He appeared via closed circuit television from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, groaning and using crutches. Prosecutors said he attempted to flee from arresting officers and was injured.

Ray was arrested with the help of surveillance footage from businesses where he used stolen credit cards and a confidential informant who identified him to police, according to charging documents.

A search warrant served in Prince Georges’s county revealed three handguns, a Bethesda teen victim’s iPod, and a “host” of other evidence against him, prosecutor Peter Feeney said in court. The warrant was served at an address in Fort Washington where Ray was staying temporarily, according to a Prince George’s County police spokesman.

Ray told Montgomery County officials he began the crime spree after committing a series of street robberies in Washington, D.C. with another man, targeting drug dealers, Feeney said in court. After Ray’s partner was shot and killed, “he claimed he began this crime spree because he was now on his own,” Feeney said in court.

“The fact that [Ray] was found hundreds of miles away by Montgomery County …. that’s great police work,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told reporters following Tuesday’s bond review hearing.

The ruling for no bond was “absolutely appropriate in this case,” McCarthy said.

Jan. 10 Wheaton Home Invasion

Ray targeted occupied homes "by design" and victimized not only women, but their children, McCarthy said following the hearing.

In the Wheaton home invasion on Jan. 10, Ray threatened to shoot a woman and her infant child, prosecutor Peter Feeney said in court.

Ray, according to Feeney, approached the woman in the garage of her townhome, wearing a ski mask and armed with a gun. The woman, Feeney said, was returning from a neighbor’s home and carrying her infant.

“Don’t scream. Don’t make a sound, or I’m going to shoot you and your baby,” Ray told the woman, according to Feeney.

Though her husband wasn’t at home, the woman told Ray he was on the third floor, hoping it would stop him, Feeney said. Ray pointed a handgun at her, grabbed her by the arm and ordered her to put the baby in the car, Feeney said. He stole cash from her wallet, according to charging documents. Feeney said he told the woman he wanted to do a “sweep” of the house, and the woman begged him not to force her into the home, Feeney said.

Ray later confessed to Montgomery County officials that his plan had been to force her to drive him to an ATM, Feeney said. He took the woman’s car keys and drove off in her 2009 Ford Escape after locking the woman and her child in a closet inside the garage, according to Feeney and charging documents.

The woman was able to free herself and go to a neighbor’s home for help, McCarthy said following the hearing.

Jan. 11 Bethesda Home Invasion

During the Jan. 11 Bethesda home invasion, Feeney said a housekeeper had just arrived to perform her weekly cleaning duties. She was leaving the home to place a parking pass in her car when she was approached by Ray, who pointed a handgun at her, Feeney said. The housekeeper screamed, and the woman who owned the home came downstairs, Feeney said.

Ray forced the housekeeper, mother and her 14-year-old son upstairs, where he threatened to shoot the boy and forced him to bind his mother, Feeney said.

"Tell me who else is in the house. Tell me now or I'll shoot you,” Ray told the boy, according to Feeney.

During the course of the alleged crime, Ray, a registered sex offender, sexually assaulted the housekeeper in a bathroom after threatening her with a gun, blindfolding her and holding a pair of scissors to her neck, Feeney said. Ray then forced the housekeeper into a shower and attempted to wash away evidence, Feeney said.

Ray stole credit cards and asked the victims for the PIN number, threatening to shoot them if the credit card didn’t work, according to charging documents. Ray drove off in the housekeeper’s 2005 Ford Expedition, and used credit cards from both the Wheaton and Bethesda victims at businesses, according to charging documents.

Jan. 13 Temple Hills Home Invasion

Ray is also charged in Prince George’s county with a Jan. 13 Temple Hills home invasion. Feeney said in court Ray approached a woman who was warming up her car around 6:30 a.m. and threatened her with a gun. He forced the woman inside her home where he ordered one of the occupants to tie up the four other people inside the home. He raped the woman in a bedroom and again in another room of the home, Feeney said.

Previous Criminal Activity

In Montgomery County, Ray faces charges of armed robbery, first-degree assault, use of a firearm in a violent crime, first-degree sex offense, and sex offense in the third degree, according to charging documents. In court Tuesday, Feeney called those charges “preliminary” and indicated more may be pending.

Ray also faces charges in Prince George’s county and is expected to be turned over to officials there following the resolution of charges against him in Montgomery County, McCarthy said.

Ray is a registered sex offender and Montgomery County officials are compiling records of his previous convictions in various jurisdictions, according to McCarthy.

The Washington Examiner reported Monday that Ray was charged in a 1995 Prince George’s County murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1996. According to the Examiner, Ray was released on parole in 1999, but was imprisoned again after he pleaded guilty to robbery with a deadly weapon.

The Examiner reported that Ray was sentenced in Prince George’s County to seven-and-a-half years in prison after being charged in 2005 with a sex offense, though the date of his latest release from prison was unclear.

Ray pleaded guilty to the 2005 sex offense charge, according to the Examiner.

Ray faces life in prison and may be eligible for a no-parole sentence because of his previous convictions and his flight from arrest, McCarthy said.

McCarthy said police are looking into whether others were involved in the crimes, but said he believes the primary suspect is in custody.

This post has been updated.