MIAMI – A Homestead man pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping Friday after police had accused him of trying to abduct a 13-year-old girl who was walking her dog in March. Under a plea deal, he’ll avoid prison.
Under the deal, Miami-Dade prosecutors dropped a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct against Michael Luprecio, 43, and he was sentenced to two years of community control.
Homestead police arrested Luprecio on March 8.
An arrest report stated that the 13-year-old was walking her dog along Southwest Fourth Street, near Krome Avenue, just after 7 a.m. that day when she came upon a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by a man later identified as Luprecio.
Luprecio, police said, pulled into the girl’s driveway, opened the SUV’s hood and looked underneath it.
As the girl walked past Luprecio, to her front door, the report states he “aggressively lunged at her, grabbing her by her right wrist and lower buttocks, catching (her) by surprise.”
“The victim stated (Luprecio) forcibly pulled her towards him against her will, gripping her wrist, attempting to pull her near his vehicle,” police wrote. “The victim stated she screamed in fear for her life, and was able to break away and ran inside of her home to call the police.”
The girl, who Local 10 News didn’t identify, spoke to us a few days after the incident.
“All of a sudden he tried to grab me and I push him and I scream at him and he grabs my lower bottom and I was so shocked,” she said. “I just ran to my house.”
Police said they tracked the Tahoe down to Luprecio’s home in the 1200 block of Northwest Ninth Street and conducted a stakeout, pulling him over on an obscured tag after he got into the vehicle and drove away.
The report states that Luprecio told detectives he “admitted to seeing the victim walking her dog and decided to pull over nearby to check a noise coming from his engine” and claimed he “startled” her by “aggressively” closing the hood.
“I don’t feel safe anymore,” the girl told Local 10 News. “As long as I have my mom and my dad, I feel more safer with them.”
Luprecio has been on medical furlough for cancer treatment and is receiving chemotherapy. The court agreed to waive at least the first six months of the cost of supervision.
Under the agreement, Luprecio’s two years of community control could be modified to probation after a year, his attorney said.
His eight years of probation will be terminated at four years if he stays out of trouble.
Luprecio left the courthouse and went back home Friday.
The victim’s mother told Local 10 News that she’s still scared and so is her daughter. But she says she hopes to move forward.
“Who am I to judge the person. I go to church too,” she said in Spanish. “The law spoke and there isn’t much I can do.”
In a statement, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office outlined the basis for the plea deal:
“The victim’s family were in agreement with the plea. They were happy to have the case resolve(d) and for the defendant to remain on supervision. LUPRECIO has been out on a GPS monitor on a medical furlough, and has not made any attempts to contact the family. LUPRECIO also has been doing ongoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment, which also served as mitigation for the plea offer. In addition, LUPRECIO had an Mentally Disordered Sex Offender (MDSO) evaluation done, where the evaluating Doctor found that the defendant’s actions were not sexually motivated, and she did not recommend MDSO treatment.”
Miami-Dade SAO statement