ORLANDO, Fla. – A Sarasota man is accused of kidnapping a woman from her Orlando apartment complex and driving her out of town to sexually batter her, according to the Orlando Police Department.
The victim said she arrived at her apartment complex parking garage at the Aqua at Millenia Apartments at 7 p.m. Sunday and parked her car on the fourth floor.
While trying to get her belongings out of her backseat, an unknown man, later identified as Michael Allen Lucas, 29, came up behind her, grabbed her by the neck and put his hand over her mouth, according to an arrest affidavit.
[TRENDING: Hundreds line up for free turkeys | COVID-19 vaccine FAQs | 11 things to be thankful for during pandemic]
The victim said Lucas told her “if you scream, I have a gun and I will shoot you,” according to the report.
He then forced her back into the vehicle and told her to put her head down between her legs and not to look at him as he drove the car away from where it was parked, the report said.
Because her head was between her legs, the victim was unable to see where Lucas was driving but, according to the report, Lucas drove them to a nearby gas station, where he flagged someone down and asked them to go inside and pay for the gas using money Lucas took from the victim’s purse.
After leaving the gas station, the victim said based on a conversation Lucas had with someone on the phone, she believes Lucas drove them to Sarasota and stopped at a place called Dreads before he took her to an abandoned house and sexually battered her, police said.
Lucas then told the victim “his DNA was all over her body” and that they needed to go back to her place so he could “shower off his DNA,” according to the report.
The suspect then drove them to another gas station, where he told the victim to get in the driver’s seat and take them back to Orlando, according to police.
On the way back, the victim noticed Lucas sleeping in the passenger’s seat and out of fear that he might wake up, she drove through multiple red lights and continued until she found a 7-Eleven gas station on International Drive, where she decided to stop for help.
According to the report, the victim stopped the car and ran inside the convenience store, asking the clerk to lock the doors because she was afraid Lucas would come inside and kill her.
The victim was hiding behind the counter when Lucas came up to the store windows with her purse and began banging on the windows, according to the affidavit.
Lucas took off in an unknown direction with the victim’s bag, police said. He was eventually located by Orange County deputies who were responding to a report of a suspicious person at Lockheed Martin near Sand Lake and Kirkman roads.
The victim was taken to the hospital and later released, according to the affidavit.
Lucas was arrested and charged with kidnapping, carjacking, sexual battery on a person 18 years or older, false imprisonment and battery.
He was booked into jail and is being held without bond under violation of probation out of Sarasota, a judge said during Lucas’ first court appearance on Tuesday.
The judge said that prior to the attack, Lucas was released from the Department of Corrections’ custody days ago for unrelated charges.
“I am going to take into consideration the fact that the defendant is a sexual offender. He’s also currently on probation, he’s a high-risk sexual offender. He’s also a violent felony offender of special concern. He was also released from DOC 22 or 23 days ago for an aggravated battery, a robbery with a deadly weapon or a firearm, I believe, and that was out of Sarasota County for which I believe he’s on probation now,” the judge said.
The judge ordered Lucas not to have any contact with the victim or return to the apartments where the alleged kidnapping took place.
Florida Department of Corrections records show Lucas was released from custody 23 days ago. He was serving a 10-year sentence for attempted armed robbery and aggravated battery charges, records show.
Police said they do not know how Lucas was able to access the apartment complex.