A crazed woman who randomly splashed sulfuric acid in a straphanger’s face inside a Brooklyn subway station will spend the next 12 years behind bars, a judge determined Tuesday.
Rodlin Gravesande, 34, was sentenced to a dozen years in prison after she was convicted last month of first- and second-degree assault charges in the 2022 attack, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said.
The 22-year-old victim, Juanita Jimenez, was left with severe scarring on her face after she suffered second- and third-degree burns.
“Today’s sentence holds this defendant accountable for a frightening and random attack on an innocent woman,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
“Brooklyn residents deserve to feel safe when taking the subway and those who jeopardize their safety will be held accountable. My heart goes out to the young victim of this attack as she continues to heal from her injuries.”
The traumatic encounter between Gravesande and Jimenez, who was 21 at the time, happened on a southbound 2 train as the victim was on her way to work at Kings County Hospital on Dec. 2, 2022.
Gravesande, formerly of Brownsville, was yelling and threatening to push riders on the subway at around 12:45 a.m. before she followed Jimenez out of the train car when she got off at the Winthrop Street station in Prospects Lefferts Gardens, prosecutors said.
The two first exchanged words before Gravesande slugged the victim in the head as she tried to walk away. Then as Jimenez tried to walk toward the exit, the defendant opened a vial of sulfuric acid and tossed it on her face, according to the district attorney’s office.
Gravesande was nabbed by authorities a month later after she fled to Georgia. Since the random assault, Jimenez has undergone nose and lip reconstruction, and multiple skin grafts.
Jimenez told The Post earlier this year the attack left her shaken.
“I always thought something like this can’t happen to me – I’m such a nice person, it couldn’t be me…[but] it really could just be anybody,” she said in February.
“We didn’t get into an argument, I didn’t know her, I didn’t have anything with her and it still occurred.”
Jimenez recently celebrated her graduation from Lehman College with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, biology and chemistry with department honors.
“Throughout this journey, the Lord has taught me that comfortability is my strongest enemy,” she said in an Instagram post. “If I have a vision, why not pursue it? I can only limit myself.”
