Four brutal rapes gets Philadelphia man 35 to 100 years in prison

SOMETIMES criminals evade detection by police and the media, even when they commit a series of savage assaults.

That was the case with Matthew Jones, 30, who pleaded guilty in July to raping and battering four women in Frankford between May 2007 and his arrest in August 2012.

Yesterday, Common Pleas Judge Donna Woelpper sentenced Jones to 35 to 100 years in state prison, noting the violence he had inflicted on his victims and calling him a danger to society and a poor candidate for rehabilitation.

Jones was also deemed a sexually violent predator under the state's Megan's Law, which will require him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life if he is ever released from prison.

Although his crimes received little - if any - media attention, Jones' victims were devastated by what he did.

During his sentencing hearing yesterday, he faced one of them.

"I can't walk down the street without looking over my shoulder every two steps," the woman, 40, said, fighting back tears.

"I have severe nightmares. . . . It's something I will never get over. I would like to see him get as much time as possible," added the woman, who was Jones' last victim.

She managed to break free after he raped her in a secluded area near Frankford Avenue and Dyre Street on Aug. 29, 2012. She summoned a passing police officer, who observed her freshly bruised face and arrested Jones on the spot.

In January 2013, Jones' DNA from that attack was linked to DNA samples from three rapes that occurred on May 10, 2007, Aug. 28, 2008, and March 26, 2011, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp said.

She had sought a 60- to 120-year sentence for Jones, a man she described as one of the most violent "predators" she has ever prosecuted.

During the May 2007 attack, she said, Jones met a woman at a bar, went back to her home and pulled a gun on her. He hit her in the face with the gun and raped her in front of her 1 1/2-year-old son, ignoring her screams, Kemp said.

Alerted neighbors called police, but Jones escaped through a window. He took the victim's money and some of her property, Kemp said.

During the August 2008 attack, Kemp said, Jones approached a woman from behind on Sellers Street near Orthodox, punched her in the face then dragged her to a vacant lot where he knocked her unconscious and raped her. The woman awoke bruised and her face beaten beyond recognition. She spent two days in the hospital.

During the March 2011 attack, Kemp said, Jones and another man pulled a woman into a grassy area in the 4900 block of Frankford Avenue and took turns raping her and shoving her face in garbage.

Jones, a high-school dropout who had no prior convictions, apologized to his victims and said while in prison he planned to earn his GED and get a job to pay restitution. His mother, grandmother and sister also apologized for his crimes.