Man facing 20 years for raping transgender student

BRIDGEPORT — A local man is facing 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to beating and raping a transgender college student and going on a robbery spree — all while he was on probation for an earlier crime.

Tysaaun Anderson, 23, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin to first-degree aggravated sexual assault, attempted first-degree robbery, violation of probation and three counts of first-degree robbery as he was about to go to trial.

Devlin said he would impose a 20-year prison term on Anderson when he is sentenced Jan. 11.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Zingaro told the judge that the 22-year-old student had just gotten off a city bus on the way home from class. The victim was walking home, listening to music on headphones when, the prosecutor said, Anderson knocked the victim to the ground with a blow to the head. He then dragged the victim to a driveway where he beat and raped the victim, Zingaro said.

Anderson fled afterward, taking the victim’s cell phone and money. The victim, who suffered a fractured eye socket, had to undergo facial reconstructive surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Police said they identified Anderson as the assailant from DNA and surveillance video.

Five days earlier, police said, Anderson robbed a young woman at gunpoint in the city using a sport utility vehicle for his getaway. Police said he stole that vehicle from a man at gunpoint outside a store on Wayne Street.

In September 2016, Anderson, who was accused of the August 2012 fatal shooting of a Bridgeport high school student, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree robbery and interfering with police. He was sentenced to nine months in prison followed by five years’ probation.