A registered sex offender who did nine years in prison for a Bronx rape and is currently on parole was ordered held without bail Friday night after being arrested for savagely beating Queens single mom Diana Agudelo as she rode her e-bike through Randall’s Island. The victim was left unconscious on the ground for nearly six hours before she was discovered by a passerby the next morning.
On Friday, detectives charged Miguel Jiraud, 30, with attempted murder for the brutal May 16 attack. The ex-con, who was just released from prison in September and wore an ankle monitor, was living in a shelter on Randall’s Island when the assault took place.
“I did nothing wrong! I found her!” Jiraud screamed at reporters as he was put into a squad car, heading to Manhattan Criminal Court. I’ve done nothing wrong since I’ve been out. Not a violation, not jumping the turnstiles! Nothing!”
Assistant District Attorney Edward Smith, speaking in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday night, said, “Remand, in this case, is necessarily reasonable to ensure the defendant’s return to court. First, the defendant is currently on parole [and wearing a] GPS ankle monitor. He was released for parole in September 2024 just eight months ago, after being convicted of rape in the first degree in 2013 and being sentenced to 12 years in prison… Clearly, he’s demonstrated that he cannot abide by any terms of release.”
“The victim,” the A.D.A. added, “is not expected to survive and has already undergone multiple brain surgeries and remains unconscious and in a coma.”
Judge Jay Weiner order Jiraud held without bail, setting a return court date of May 28.
Detectives determined that Jiraud called 911 to report that Agudelo, 44, was lying on the ground near the bike path several hours after he attacked her, but recovered evidence that showed he was in the area where and when the attack took place.
He was also identified as the man caught on camera throwing Agudelo’s e-bike into the East River, a police source said.
Investigators are in the process of subpoenaing data from Jiraud’s ankle monitor, which will prove that he was in the exact spot where Agudelo was attacked at the time she was attacked, the source said.
“I’m pretty sure that person didn’t even want to rob her,” Agudelo’s daughter Stephanie Rodas, 21, told the Daily News Friday. “I’m pretty sure he just wanted to kill her.”
Jiraud’s family said the ex-con was working in a cafeteria at a Randall’s Island shelter and was trying to cobble his life back together.
The ex-con told them that he had found Agudelo and was “cooperating with police,” but didn’t believe he was responsible for the attack.
“He’s been doing so good,” the suspect’s older brother, Luis Jiraud, told The News. “He works there, lives there. [He] reported this. I think they’re going by his history. He ain’t going to be stupid.”
Agudelo was biking home from her job as a janitor at an East Harlem museum, taking her usual shortcut through Randall’s Island to get to her Astoria apartment, when Jiraud jumped her about 11:30 p.m. last Friday, police said.
She was struck multiple times in the head and face before the attacker took her e-bike.
Her e-bike was later recovered in the East River. Surveillance footage recovered at the scene where the bike was thrown into the water helped police build a case against Jiraud.
Agudelo was found unconscious near the bike path at about 5:15 a.m. the next day as the sky began to lighten on the sparsely populated island, which is home to sports fields and institutions including shelters, a psychiatric hospital and an FDNY training facility.
One of her black Skechers sneakers was found in a trash can near the scene, cops told the family.
“I was happy and glad because it’s like at least my mom can finally get justice,” Rodas said of the arrest. “But then I got really upset when I found out that the bike was thrown into the river. At first I thought it was a robbery, but now everything is so clear that it wasn’t a robbery. This person tried to kill my mother. All for nothing.”
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Friday called the assault on Agudelo “horrific.”
“We conducted an aggressive investigation and we have identified a person we believe is responsible for that assault,” she said at an unrelated press conference in the Bronx.
Jiraud served nine years in prison for raping, beating and choking a 28-year-old woman inside a Bronx apartment building on Feb. 23, 2011. He was convicted of rape in 2013 and was released from state prison last year.
The victim claimed she was in the Courtlandt Ave. apartment building near E. 165th St. in the Melrose section of the Bronx when Jiraud, who was then 16, grabbed her in an elevator and put her in a chokehold.
“Don’t scream, I swear I’ll shoot you, you white b—h,” he screamed at his victim as he choked her into unconsciousness, prosecutors said at the time.
Jiraud took the woman up to the roof where he raped and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
“Don’t fight it or I will kill you,” he said during the attack, and threatened to throw her off the roof, according to court papers. “You’re the third one I’ve had.”
He also said he was about to jump on a plane at JFK. “You’ll never see me again,” he said.
After his arrest, he admitted that he followed his victim for one block before grabbing her in the elevator.
“I pulled her pants down and began to rape her,” he confessed. “I seriously injured her.”
The motive for the attack on Agudelo was not immediately clear Friday, cops said.
The single mom hasn’t regained consciousness since she was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital, her daughter said.
Jiraud’s family believes detectives are pinning the attack on him solely on his prior criminal record.
“It happens all the time,” Jiraud’s niece Doris Jiraud said. “Even the people from the shelter are also saying they don’t believe [the charges].”
“He’s doing so good,” Doris said about her uncle. “He got employment really fast. He got in all his paperwork that he needed. His parole officer was happy for him. He’s been viewing apartments to get housed. So I don’t understand.”
Agudelo made it through surgery Wednesday to relieve pressure on her brain, but only has a 1% chance of ultimately surviving, Rodas said.
“The injuries to her brain are so intensive,” she said. “Most people if not all, have died from injuries similar to this. Most of her brain wasn’t even functioning correctly anymore.”
During Wednesday’s surgery Agudelo’s heart stopped, and doctors had to resuscitate her, Rodas said.
“Then [Thursday] she had to do another emergency surgery, which they told me was very dangerous. But luckily, she survived it,” she said. “I thought I was getting all good news, but then at 3 a.m. they told me she might have to go into surgery again. Right now they’re doing CT scans of her brain to see how the pressure is.”
“[The surgeries] are all very critical and they’re all life-threatening. They’re very dangerous surgeries,” she added. “I know that [the doctors] don’t want to keep my hopes high because it’s like an emotional rollercoaster. They said that anything can happen, just take it day by day.”
Rodas confirmed that her grandmother, Agudelo’s mother, had a heart attack in Colombia and had to be hospitalized when she heard about her daughter’s attack.
More than $35,000 has been raised for Agudelo’s medical care through a GoFundMe post.
Originally Published: May 23, 2025 at 8:33 AM EDT
