FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A man serving a six-year prison sentence in the Florida Panhandle for a Broward County burglary conviction was back in South Florida Wednesday to face a charge in connection with a 2017 Hollywood rape case.
According to an arrest report, DNA evidence tied Gilberto Erasmo Gonzalez, 35, to the rape of a massage therapist.
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Gonzalez, 35, is serving his sentence at the Wakulla Correctional Institution in Crawfordville, stemming from a 2022 conviction for burglarizing a woman’s home in Dania Beach “with the intent to engage in sexual activities” with her.
In that case, Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said he covered the woman’s mouth with his hand, pushed her down on a table and told her to “shut up,” later telling deputies he had entered her bedroom twice before to watch her sleep.
In this case, on June 18, 2017, Hollywood police said Gonzalez entered a massage business and told the victim that he wanted a massage and handed her a credit card.
Police said he attacked the woman as she changed out receipt paper in the card reader, pulling down her underwear. After she pulled it back up and said, “Don’t touch me,” police said Gonzalez began to “strangle” her and pulled her into a small “resting room” with a bed and a lamp.
The arrest report states that the victim struggled with Gonzalez for five minutes, trying to scream for help, biting him and fighting to free herself.
Gonzalez “continued to strangle the victim with enough force that the victim believed she was going to die,” a detective wrote.
Police said he then raped her. After the sexual assault, he got dressed and left.
The woman was able to call for help and was taken to the Sexual Assault Treatment Center to have a rape kit conducted.
Police said authorities took Gonzalez’s DNA following his 2022 sentence. It matched the rape kit DNA after being run through a database, they said.
In March 2023, Hollywood detectives traveled to Wakulla County to get their own DNA sample from Gonzalez after obtaining a search warrant. He provided a sample as ordered, but declined to give a statement.
In January, the results from that sample also came back as a match to the rape kit results, police said.
That led to three new charges in Broward County: sexual battery, false imprisonment and battery, second or subsequent offense.
He was booked into the BSO Main Jail on Tuesday ahead of his Wednesday court appearance.