Woman fights off convicted rapist in her own home

LAWRENCE (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A Level 2 sex offender walked into a woman's Lawrence home and allegedly tried to attack her, but ended up in the hospital after she fought back.

April Marchessault, a 31-year-old mother of three, was attacked from behind in her own home. Marchessault had just opened the back door to take the trash out when Edgardo Montes, 47, of Lawrence, a convicted rapist, walked in.

“I saw that he had the back of his shirt over the front of his face so I pushed him as hard as I could,” Marchessault said. “When I pushed him he got me in the jaw and he fell into my stove and that’s when I pulled off his shirt and saw his face.”

She put up the fight of her life in a struggle that lasted minutes. She was able to fight off the two hundred-pound man before he ran for the door.

But it didn't end there. This time Marchessault went after him and chased the attacker outside and kicked him down her back stairs.

“I ran down the stairs and I just kept hitting him as hard as I could and kicking his leg and stomping on his leg,” she said. He kept trying to get up and we did that all the way up the driveway.”

When her hands got tired she used the trash can, hitting Montes on the head and screaming for help.

Her cries woke up her parents and the neighbors and it wasn't long before reinforcements arrived to hold Montes until police could cuff him.

After the attack, the suspect was brought to Lawrence General Hospital with injuries so severe he couldn't make it to court. He was arraigned by his hospital bedside the next morning.

Marchessault says she would do it again and she hopes telling her story will encourage other woman to fight back too.

Montes is facing numerous charges. He has been held without bail pending a trial.