Malcolm Reiman (Dan Brinzac)
DEPRAVED: James David Martin, in custody in The Bronx this week, has been convicted of two murders — and possibly committed a third. (Christopher Sadowski)
The monster busted for the vicious 1998 rape and strangulation of a 14-year-old Bronx runaway is now the prime suspect in up to four other sex attacks in the borough, The Post has learned.
“We’re looking at him for at least three, and possibly four other rapes” during the same time period, a law-enforcement source said of James David Martin.
The fiend pleaded not guilty yesterday to the murder, rape and sodomy of Marleny Cruz, 14, on Feb. 23, 1998.
Prosecutor Rachel Singer told the judge that Martin, 40, made videotaped statements to cops admitting he’d arranged a date with the girl at his mother’s apartment.
The thug grabbed Marleny around her throat during an argument, Singer said.
“I grabbed her neck for a few minutes. I didn’t think I hurt her that bad,” Martin said in the statement, according to Singer.
Shackled and clad in a white T-shirt and jeans, the creep said nothing in court beyond his plea.
Sources said Martin tried to talk his way out of the rap during a February interview with NYPD detectives at a Pennsylvania prison — where he is serving time for another murder.
He told cops him he had sex with the victim but denied killing her — a gambit he hoped would explain why his semen was found on her body.
“He picked up a few things in jail on what to say,” the source said.
Marleny was raped after dark in an empty Bronx park, and her battered body was found dumped, partially clothed, on a sidewalk near Valentine Avenue and East 183rd Street.
DNA evidence collected from her body led to Martin, a career violent criminal.
At age 17, he fatally choked a 15-year-old pal at his Maryland high school so he could steal the boy’s $115 Nike Air Jordans — which didn’t even fit him.
Fifteen years later, he strangled gal pal Cecilia Santiago, 30, in Allenwood, Pa., tossing her body like a piece of trash in a Dumpster at a nearby strip mall.
He is serving 22 to 40 years for that murder.
Marleny’s death stayed unsolved until Bronx Detective Malcolm Reiman pulled her DNA sample from storage last September.
Reiman, a 26-year veteran, said Cruz’s foster mother, Alice McLeod, literally jumped for joy when he gave her the news.
“She jumped up and hugged me and she told me God told her one day I’d come through her door,” he said.
“These families continue to feel the pain. It doesn’t go away . . . It doesn’t matter whether it’s 14 minutes old or 14 years old, victims deserve justice.”
Additional reporting by Douglas Montero