DETROIT, MI — In the nearly 10 months Michael Sykes, 21, of Detroit has been free since Dec. 12, 2008 — the rest of the time was spent in a juvenile detention facility — he’s been convicted of or charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting seven women and raping a 15-year-old.
He’s the man investigators have pegged as a suspected serial rapist terrorizing northwest Detroit.
Wayne County Magistrate Charles Anderson III on Wednesday arraigned Sykes via video from the Wayne County Jail on nearly 30 felonies, including kidnappings, armed robberies and first-degree sexual assaults stemming from two alleged attacks, one of two women, currently 25 and 26, on March 24, 2008 when Sykes was 14; and the other allegedly committed against three women, ages 19, 20 and 21, on March 29.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Elizondo says there’s DNA tying Sykes to both of those cases.
Although Sykes has no felony convictions, he has two prior juvenile court adjudications, the assistant prosecutor said. Both involved sexual assault or kidnapping and attempted sexual assault.
A jury found Sykes guilty on three counts of first-degree sexual assault for the rape of a 15-year-old girl at an abandoned home in Detroit in December 17 of 2008.
“Mr. Sykes took her off the street by using force, took her to an abandoned home, put a … shard of glass at her neck and threatened to kill her if she did not comply and he sexually assaulted her. After Mr. Sykes was arrested on that particular case, he had been let out on a tether.
“And just about a week before his trial on that case, Mr. Sykes was arrested in conjunction with a second assault that occurred on April 13 of 2009.”
