NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ–The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO) announced that a New Brunswick man has been convicted a second time on charges of breaking into a woman’s home in 2003 and sexually assaulting her.

According to a MCPO Press release, 45-year-old Bruce Sterling was found guilty on September 29 of burglary while armed, aggravated sexual assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and terroristic threats.

Sterling is already serving a 50-year term in prison for sexually assaulting women in Edison and New Brunswick and for an armed burglary of an apartment in North Brunswick.

The MCPO said that Sterling was arrested and charged when he attempted to break into the North Brunswick apartment, and was chased by the homeowner. Police later found him hiding in the woods.

In a trial that began on September 24, Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Miralles Walsh presented evidence and testimony showing that Sterling climbed through the window of a home on Ray Street in New Brunswick, took a knife from the kitchen, and sexually assaulted a 25-year-old woman in her bedroom at 3:30 a.m. on June 9, 2003.

Detectives determined that Sterling, who worked as a nurse’s aide at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, broke into the New Brunswick woman’s home and sexually assaulted her during his lunch break.

The jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Sterling guilty, according to the MCPO release.

The MCPO said Sterling is scheduled to be sentenced on January 7, 2016 by Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas.  Sterling faces to up to 20 years in a New Jersey state prison.

Sterling previously had been tried and convicted in the case, but the New Jersey Supreme Court overturned the conviction on the grounds Sterling had not received a fair trial.

As we reported in December, Sterling was also found guilty in a retrial on charges he sexually assaulted a woman at gunpoint in her Richardson Street home. 

Reporter at New Brunswick Today