MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A Miami man who police identified as homeless has been arrested after investigators said he sexually assaulted a woman on Miami Beach.
On Sept. 25, according to an arrest report, Carlos Nunez, 28, met a woman who was drunk and took advantage of her “physically helpless” situation.
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The victim told police that she had started drinking Smirnoff Ice beers around 7 p.m. and that throughout the night she became more “mareada” — what the arrest report said she referred to as being drunk.
At 1:40 a.m., she began to drink tequila and at 2 a.m., she said she went to the 9Beach Latin Restaurant and Bar, at 1638 Collins Ave., where she ordered a pina colada. She identified one of the men with her as her boyfriend and said the two had been experiencing problems and had been verbally fighting.
He and two other people met the victim at 9Beach where they kept drinking. The victim told police that she had a verbal dispute with the man she identified as her boyfriend around 3:15 a.m. and left the bar by herself. She began walking alone west on Lincoln Road from Collins Avenue, then south on Washington Avenue. Surveillance cameras captured video of the victim walking at approximately 3:25 a.m. east on Lincoln Road from Washington Avenue, “visibly stumbling,” according to the report.
The victim was then seen on camera at Lincoln Road and the Beachwalk where she was approached by two people who police said they had “dealt with on numerous occasions.” Soon after, Nunez arrived and started to speak with the victim and handed her a bottle of tequila. According to the report, she was seen “gulping from the bottle several times.”
At 3:36 a.m., Nunez led the victim onto the beach area, taking the tequila with him. The report says he was holding the victim’s hand to keep her from falling and as they walked, she broke free. It was then, according to investigators, that he attempted to pull her onto the beach and also into a beach entrance at the 1600 block of the Beachwalk.
She was able to break free from him and sat at the wall at Lincoln Road and Beachwalk but her condition was “rapidly deteriorating,” according to police.
At one point, Nunez, who was seen smoking an unknown substance, shoved whatever he was smoking into the victim’s mouth, authorities said. He then picked her up off the beach wall by grabbing both of her legs and carried her over his shoulder – police called this a “fireman-type” carry.
In the hours between 3:45 a.m. and 4:12 a.m., the victim was taken and left near a shower area concealed by the beach wall. Surveillance video shows Nunez and three other people entering in and out of the area several times. The victim, now completely unconscious, was carried again by Nunez east onto the beach from Lincoln Road and away from public view and any lit area, authorities said.
According to police, at 4:39 a.m., Nunez could be seen quickly exiting the area, walking quickly, occasionally “looking over his shoulder,” and eventually running north on the Beachwalk.
When he reached the showers at 17th Street and the Beachwalk, according to the report, he began to wash parts of his body but was facing away from surveillance cameras.
At 8:42 a.m., the victim was seen on camera exiting the beach onto the 1600 block of the Beachwalk covered in sand, her clothing and hair disheveled, barefoot, with a large cut over her right eye. She ended up getting help from a friend of her father’s, she said, who walked her to her apartment. At 2:18 p.m., the victim reported the incident to the Miami Beach Police Department.
In a statement to police, she said she recalled waking up on the beach and noticed that her underwear was missing, and her clothing was partially wet.
She believed that she had been a victim of sexual battery but could not remember the events that happened after drinking with her friends at 9Beach.
She was then treated at the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where a rape kit was collected. Detectives also showed her City of Miami Beach surveillance video and the victim said she had not previously known any of the people shown in the video.
Nunez was picked up for questioning on Thursday, Oct. 12, at 1100 Washington Ave., and was taken to the Miami Beach Police Department.
He faces one count of aggravated battery and one count of sexual battery on a physically helpless victim.