A man accused of raping and robbing a corpse in a Manhattan subway car violated the dead body for nearly a half hour — pausing only when the train pulled into stations to let passengers on and off, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Victim Jorge Gonzalez, 37, had only been dead for about 30 minutes before Felix Rojas, 44, approached the body and allegedly started rifling through the dead man’s pockets.
Rojas then straddled the corpse’s head and orally raped the body as the late-night R train rumbled through Manhattan, taking breaks when the doors opened to accommodate passengers.
“After seeing that the victim continued to remain motionless, the defendant decided to take advantage of the situation,” Assistant District Attorney Antonio Melchionna said during Rojas’ arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“The defendant was careful enough to stop what he was doing as the train would approach and stop at stations along the line. He even took the time to sit down and act inconspicuous as passengers entered the train car.”
Rojas was ordered held without bail Tuesday.
The criminal complaint charging Rojas with attempted rape and attempted grand larceny provides a detailed timeline of the events before and after Gonzalez’s death on April 8.
Investigators used surveillance video to build their case against Rojas. Court documents said Gonzalez had been in the same subway car for several hours before he took a cigarette from another passenger at about 10:45 p.m. About five minutes later, Gonzalez, still sitting on the bench, lost consciousness and became motionless.
The video, as described in court documents, shows Rojas approached the victim about 30 minutes later and began searching the body for valuables, pausing when the train stopped to let passengers on and off.
After positioning the body just right, Rojas stepped up on the bench and straddled the corpse’s head, the video allegedly shows.
“The defendant mounted his legs on the bench where the victim was seated so that his waist was the same height as the victim’s mouth,” Melchionna said.
Rojas then “grabbed the victim’s head with one of his hands and thrusted his hips continuously,” the prosecutor added.
Melchionna said Rojas repeated the action several times between stops.
Rojas then dragged the body to the filthy floor of the subway car and placed it facedown, prosecutors said. He allegedly pulled down the pants on the body, and pulled down his own, then straddled the body again, this time from behind, to anally rape the corpse.
But he wasn’t done attempting to rob the victim, according to prosecutors.
“To make sure he had not missed anything when he searched the victim before sexually assaulting him, the defendant searched the person of the victim once more after he had penetrated him, going so far as to take off the victim’s shoes,” Melchionna said.
And when he was done with his depraved act, Rojas did not run, according to prosecutors. He was still on the scene when a second person, a woman, robbed the body, and later when an MTA worker discovered the corpse on the idling train at the Whitehall St. subway station in lower Manhattan about 12:30 a.m. — and he didn’t leave until FDNY medics told him to.
A surveillance photo of the female suspect was also released by the NYPD, but she has not been caught.
Rojas was arrested Sunday after his son told police he recognized his father as the man in security footage released by the NYPD.
The son also told cops he didn’t believe Rojas could be guilty of necrophilia, a police source said.
Rojas, a husband and father of three, has been separated from his wife for about a year, according to a neighbor and a sister, who professed his innocence. He has no criminal history in New York City, police sources said.
“He’s a good person,” Rojas’ sister, who did not want her name used, said Monday. “He wouldn’t do something like that. He’s not guilty of what you’re hearing. He’s been a good husband, a good father. He never got into problems.”
Originally Published: April 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM EDT
