CLERMONT, Fla. – A woman stabbed a 22-year-old man who allegedly attacked and tried to rape her early Thursday in the Four Corners area of Clermont, deputies said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that Robert Pascual faces charges of burglary to an occupied conveyance with battery, attempted sexual battery and false imprisonment.
The Sheriff's Office said Pascual attacked the woman around 12:45 a.m. She told deputies she had just arrived home from dinner when Pascual opened the driver's side door of her vehicle and tried to pull her out of the car, according to an affidavit. She said she had never seen the man prior to the attack.
The victim bit and clawed at Pascual in an attempt to stop the attack, but he pulled her hair, pushed her face into the ground and grabbed at her throat so she couldn't speak, deputies said.
Deputies said Pascual told the woman he was going to sexually assault her. She begged him not to, telling him she was waiting for marriage.
The victim pretended like she was going to comply, deputies said. Deputies said that she told her attacker that they should move to the inside of her car so they wouldn't be seen. Once inside, she grabbed a knife she had in a storage compartment and repeatedly stabbed Pascual, deputies said.
He tried to pull her out of the car, but she fought him off, locked the doors and called 911.
Someone else also called 911 and said that a man was dragging a woman by her hair and being violent with her at the Ashton Chase Apartments, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said they followed a blood trail that led to Pascual, who was lying underneath a stairwell.
Investigators said it was determined that Pascual tried to rape the woman. Pascual was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he is in stable condition, and he will be booked into the Lake County Jail.
Deputies said he initially gave them incorrect names, so they had to scan his fingerprint to determine his identity. He said he was involved in an argument with a woman, but didn't remember anything else about the incident, deputies said.
The victim had injuries consistent with the details of the attack.
Another woman, Natasha Anaclade, who lives at the apartment complex, told News 6 that Pascual approached her minutes before the attack, asking if she had drugs, or wanted to have sex.
"He asked me where I could find marijuana, and I said no. And I said no. He asked where I could find cocaine. And I said no. And then he asked me if I wanted to have sex, and I said 'No, thank you,'" Anaclade said.
She said Pascual started to get aggressive as Anaclade struggled to get away to the safety of her apartment.
She was able to get inside, and her husband called 911 to report the encounter. While he was on the phone, they saw a woman being attacked outside the window.
"(My husband) saw them struggling and he pulled her out by her hair and started to assault her, and they kind of went in front of her car where my husband couldn't see anymore, so he was begging the 911 operator, 'Please let me go out there and help her.' And they said, 'Just wait, they're on their way,'"Anaclade said.
After witnessing the attack, Anaclade applauded the woman's quick thinking during the terrifying situation.
"I'm just so thankful that she was a warrior and she, you know, saved herself," Anaclade said. "I realize now how much more prepared I need to be."
Investigators in Lake County are now trying to determine if a witness composite sketch of a male suspect is the same man arrested Thursday morning for assaulting a woman in Clermont.
Pascual was arrested near the Ashton Chase Apartments in Clermont after passing out near the front door of an off-duty Winter Garden police officer.
In December, Lake County investigators released a composite sketch of a man they said had approached woman on four different instances at the same apartment complex where Thursday's assault took place.
Law enforcement also said that for almost a year, Mount Dora detectives have been trying to speak with Pascual about his role in another sexual battery that took place in early 2016. Investigators said that without enough evidence to issue a warrant, Pascual was never located.
In another similarity, investigators said that both the suspect in the composite sketch and Pascual have a chipped tooth.
In the upcoming days, witnesses in the previous instances will participate in a suspect lineup to identify Pascual.