OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – Police arrested an Opa-locka man on three felony charges Monday after they said he had sex with a runaway teenager multiple times and later choked and threatened her while she was pregnant.
Brandon Sherman, 34, faces charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery of a pregnant victim.
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According to an arrest report from the Opa-locka Police Department, on April 18, Sherman invited the girl to stay at his apartment, located in the 13000 block of Northwest Port Said Road, an invitation she believed to involve “no strings attached.”
Police said the opposite was true. They said Sherman told her that if she wanted to stay at his apartment, she would have to have sex with him, which she did.
While the report didn’t provide the girl’s age, the charge of unlawful sexual activity with a minor pertains to victims who are 16 or 17 years old under Florida law.
Two months later, police said the girl called Sherman to tell her she was pregnant and later ran away again on Aug. 21.
The report states that the next day, after having had sex twice, Sherman and the girl got into a verbal argument which turned physical. Police said Sherman slapped the girl with the back of his hand and then choked her to the point that she couldn’t breathe.
Police wrote that Sherman then pulled a gun from his waistband, pointed it at the girl and told her “if she told anyone he would shoot her and end her life.”
They said the girl then contacted her mother, left Sherman’s apartment and was later taken to an area hospital to be treated for her injuries.
The report leaves open the possibility that Sherman may have fathered the girl’s child and notes that he will be required to pay child support if so.
Sherman was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $75,000 bond as of Tuesday morning.