The vicious sexual assault of a 77-year-old woman by a Honduran migrant who is in the country illegally has the local sheriff in Polk County, Florida, riled up.
The suspect, 24-year-old Axel Antonio Espinal Herrera of Honduras, is accused of breaking into the elderly woman’s home Aug. 29 while she slept and sexually battering her.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd posted a video to social media describing what he calls “one of the most horrific crimes that we’ve seen in this county in a very long time.”
Espinal Herrera initially fled the scene but was located in the neighborhood and arrested hours later. According to jail records, he remains lodged in Polk County Jail on multiple charges and an immigration hold.
“He was a young man, 24 years of age, sexually battering a 77-year-old woman after he broke into her house in the middle of the night,” Judd said. “Do I need to say more? Do I need to say that this couldn’t have occurred if he hadn’t been in this country? Do I need to say that our goal is that he will be in a United States prison in the state of Florida for the rest of his life upon conviction.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office booked him on multiple felonies, including kidnapping, sexual battery by force, burglary with battery, tampering with evidence, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and loitering/prowling.
Espinal Herrera is in the United States illegally, so the charges reflect a one-degree enhancement, the Sheriff’s Office said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also lodged a detainer on Espinal Herrera.
Unlike in sanctuary jurisdictions, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office posted a press release and highlighted Espinal Herrera’s illegal immigration status.
The sheriff’s office said detectives “quickly solved a burglary and vicious sexual battery of an elderly woman in her Mulberry residence.” Polk County is about 30 miles east of Tampa, Florida.
According to the sheriff’s office, the alleged assault occurred around 4 a.m. Aug. 29. The victim woke up after she heard a noise and saw an unknown man in her house.
“She wakes up to see a silhouette in her living room and the next thing you know he pounces on her on the bed and begins to sexually batter her,” Judd said. “He attacks her. He drags her around the room by her hands and feet. She fights him off.”
The assailant forcibly removed the victim’s clothing and sexually battered her and then slapped her when she tried to get away, the sheriff’s office said.
“He is graphically very vile and out of control,” Judd said. “She runs outside nude screaming for help. He drags her back into the house. And then, after the sexual battery event ends, he flees the residence.”
The sheriff said she tried to get away multiple times, but Espinal Herrera is accused of repeatedly sexually battering her.
After the attack, the victim called 911 and deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office responded. The sheriff said the woman was “very alert” and gave officers a good description of his clothes and what he looked like.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to think some of the things he did and some of the things he attempted to do are so vile, we can’t talk about them on television,” Judd said, per a report by WFLA News 8.
Judd also thanked God that the victim is alive and that she was able to help identify the violent attacker.
WFLA News 8 also spoke to the victim’s son, who called the suspect “a monster,” adding “How do you describe a person that attacks an elderly disabled woman in her home at 4 in the morning?”
Sheriff’s office detectives began a neighborhood canvass for possible witnesses or video surveillance and other tips.
At one of the homes, detectives spoke with two of the residents, who also turned out to be illegal immigrants from Honduras. They said a third man was taking a shower.
Detectives waited to talk to him and noticed he matched the victim’s description. They also found clothing that the victim described inside the home.
Judd said he had “scratches all over his body where she fought back to get away from him.” The victim picked Espinal Herrera out of a photo line-up, the sheriff’s office said.
Espinal Herrera initially cooperated with investigators but then refused to answer any more questions, according to the news release.
“When we located him, we interviewed him, and the only thing he said was, ‘Well if she said I did it, I probably did. I was using drugs.’ And then he wouldn’t talk to us anymore,” Judd said.
The sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant for swabbings from Espinal Herrera and recovered other evidence. They also found him with cocaine.
He was arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail. Two other men who lived at the home were also taken into custody on ICE holds.
