MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A man in Miami Beach was arrested Wednesday after being accused of targeting two tourists in what police described as a sexual battery and robbery case.
Thirty-nine-year-old Alejandro Yadir Gongora was charged with two counts of sexual battery with no serious personal injury and two counts of strong-arm robbery.
On Thursday, Gongora appeared in court.
“So he’s pretending to be a rideshare driver, picks up these two women, robs and assaults them,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer said. “No contact with the victims through social media or other electronic means, and you must stay at least 500 feet away from the victims, their homes, schools and place of employment at all times.”
Gongora was given a $30,000 bond.
A Dade County judge on Friday ordered that Gongora remain in jail.
According to Miami Beach Police, on Saturday, the two victims were leaving a club in the Wynwood area when they hailed for a driver to take them back to their hotel in Miami Beach. They believed Gongora was their rideshare driver and entered his SUV.
During their drive to the hotel, Gongora pulled the vehicle over to an undetermined area in Miami Beach, got out of the SUV and entered the back seat. He then took a purse from one of the victims who had fallen asleep in the SUV.
The purse contained the victim’s credit cards, IDs, an Ecuadorean passport and her cellphone.
Gongora then handed the purse off to a second subject who was at the scene and fled in a separate vehicle.
According to one of the victims, Gongora re-entered the SUV and began to sexually batter her. She pleaded for him to stop on multiple occasions, but Gongora continued.
The arrest form stated, “the victim pleaded with the subject to stop on multiple occasions to no avail. The subject attempted to pull victim into the third-row seats of the SUV however victim braced herself and held onto her seat to keep from getting pulled.”
Police said that Gongora returned to the driver’s seat and drove the victims toward their hotel. While parked north of the hotel, he exited his vehicle again and physically removed both victims out of his SUV.
One of the victims attempted to dial 911 for help and tried to delay Gongora from leaving the scene as she attempted to recover her stolen items. He then fled southbound on Collins Avenue with his vehicle’s right rear passenger door completely ajar.
“Our detectives were able to, through their investigation and identify both the driver and the vehicle, an arrest was made,” said one police officer.
The drop-off was captured by Sherbrooke Hotel security cameras, which also shows Miami Beach detectives arriving Tuesday to grab the images of the ride gone horribly wrong.
Police were then able to track Gongora by using the victim’s cellphone, which was pinged to his nearest address. At his residence, police found his SUV.
Gongora also has a hold for another case and will see a division judge on Friday.
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