Miami-Dade man accused of molesting a young girl in a Florida Keys hotel room
Keys deputies say a Miami-Dade County man molested a preteen girl in an Islamorada hotel room on Sunday.
Deputies arrested Rafael Rolando Nicolas, 41, on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation on a victim under the age of 16. He was released on a $50,000 bond Monday morning.
Nicolas did not return a text message to his cellphone from the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com seeking comment Tuesday.
According to the sheriff’s office, he and another man had been drinking all day Saturday and they returned to the other man’s hotel room around 1:20 a.m. Sunday.
While the other man went to sleep in the hotel room’s bed with his wife, Nicolas went to the pullout couch to sleep near the 12-year-old victim, sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt said. Everyone was in the same room, Linhardt said.
Soon after, the woman woke up her husband because she saw Nicolas touching the girl while she was shouting and telling him to stop, according to the sheriff’s office. The man, who deputies have not named, grabbed his handgun and ordered Nicolas to get away from the girl and to get dressed, authorities said.
Nicolas put on his clothes and drove off from the hotel. The couple called the sheriff’s office and gave deputies a description of Nicolas’ car. They pulled him over on U.S. 1 in Key Largo at mile marker 105.
The girl corroborated to detectives the woman’s narrative about what happened, Linhardt said.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 2:44 PM.
