MIAMI – The owner of a Miami body shop is facing three felony charges after police said he kidnapped a man from a northwest Miami-Dade apartment, forced him to strip to his underwear and then beat him in August. Police said he then took thousands of dollars from the man.
Miami-Dade police arrested Francisco Antonio Ramos Morales, 34, of Hialeah, on charges of kidnapping, armed burglary, false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery on Wednesday. An arrest report states that he owns Worldwide Car Connect, located at 680 NW 71st St. in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.
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The report states that surveillance video from Aug. 3 showed Ramos Morales going to the victim’s apartment in the 3500 block of Northwest 79th Street, just east of Hialeah, lifting up his shirt to show a gun and threatening him to come to his vehicle.
Authorities said Ramos Morales told an unidentified man to get out of the vehicle, had the victim go in the back seat and then activated the rear child lock, beginning an ordeal in which police said Ramos Morales would drive the victim to multiple locations for beatings.
One of those locations, according to the report, was a lot across from Miami Northwestern High School, at 1100 NW 71st St.
There, police said Ramos Morales told the victim to “undress himself until he was wearing only his underwear” and then punched him in the face several times.
The report states that Ramos Morales then drove the victim to his body shop for further beatings, including smashing a glass bottle on the man’s forehead, eventually requiring stitches.
Authorities said another man was accompanying Ramos Morales.
The report states Ramos Morales drove the victim, against his will, with the other man to a location in Broward County to pick someone else up.
“On the way back to Miami, (Ramos Morales) parked the vehicle on the side of the road, began to strike the victim in the face multiple times and forced the victim to enter the trunk/hatchback space of the vehicle,” the report states. “(Ramos Morales) then drove to the victim’s residence.”
Authorities said Ramos and the other man went inside looking for the victim’s cash.
“When they couldn’t find it, (Ramos Morales) walked back to the vehicle, opened the trunk/hatchback door where the victim was lying down in a fetal position and only wearing his underwear,” the report states. “(Ramos Morales) allowed the victim to exit the vehicle and put his shorts on. While in the house, (Ramos Morales and the other man) forcefully, and while in possession of a firearm, removed $6,000 in U.S. currency from under the victim’s bed.”
Police said they then drove back to the body shop, where Ramos Morales told the other man to take the victim to an Airbnb at 112 NE 71st St. in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.
Authorities said the other man tied him up to a chair at the Airbnb. Police said they took the other man, who they have not identified, into custody the following morning.
The report states on Wednesday, detectives saw Ramos Morales leave the body shop and get into an Acura. They would follow him and pull him over on the Airport Expressway, just east of Okeechobee Road.
Police said Ramos Morales told them he “(did) not want to speak with detectives.”
The arrest report doesn’t provide a motive or explain whether or how he knew the alleged victim.
As of Thursday afternoon, Ramos Morales was being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, online records show.