Man posing as a rideshare driver arrested after he raped two women in Miami, cops say
A man posing as a rideshare driver frequented popular Miami nightclubs — on the prowl for intoxicated women he could sexually assault, according to police.
Yadir Alejandro Gongora, 39, faces sexual battery and kidnapping charges after he was arrested Saturday in connection to two separate cases. He’s being held at Metrowest Detention Center without bond.
In August 2023, a 22-year-old woman walked into the City of Miami Police Department and told investigators she had been sexually assaulted — but couldn’t remember how it happened.
The woman and two of her coworkers had gone out for a night of drinking, taking an Uber to Candela, a bar in Brickell, according to a report. Later during the outing, her phone ran out of battery, and she couldn’t find her friends.
So she decided to walk outside and remembers ending up in a vehicle, though she couldn’t recall how she had got inside, the report states. At one point, a man raped her while another man drove the car.
The woman woke up, still inside the vehicle, almost five hours later, per the report. At that point, one of the men instructed her to get out at a Publix, located at 134 SW 13th Street, the report shows.
The grocery store was only two minutes away from the bar.
In May, police received information — redacted in the report filed in court this week — that led them to Gongora. When police questioned him on Friday, Gongora maintained that he didn’t know the woman and had never seen her before.
Gongora did, however, say that he offered people rides from clubs in the Wynwood and downtown Miami areas, specifically mentioning E11EVEN Miami and Club Space, according to the report. Gongora claimed that he worked for a rideshare app between 2017 and 2019, but later started driving around regular customers that contacted him.
A pattern of behavior?
A month later, in September 2023, a 21-year-old woman came forward after she was sexually assaulted in a similar manner, a second report reveals.
The woman said she had been out drinking and was separated from her friends. She had no recollection of the night until she was dropped off near her home on the 16800 block of Northwest 67th Avenue.
She didn’t recall if she or someone with her had ordered a rideshare but said she last remembered being near 900 South Miami Avenue, about 30 minutes away from her home, according to the report.
The woman said she noticed that her underwear was in her purse but her phone, wallet and camera were missing.
Gongora fell on police’s radar in May, after police received information, which was also redacted on the report. When Gongora was shown a photo of the victim, he told investigators something that was redacted in the report.
These rideshare incidents aren’t the first time Gongora has been accused of sexual assault.
In October, Gongora was facing charges of robbery by sudden snatching and sexual battery after police say he posed as an Uber driver and raped a woman he had picked up from a Wynwood nightclub.
He was sentenced in May to two years of probation on a robbery charge. The circumstances of the plea deal are unclear as of Monday evening.
This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 7:06 PM.
