Gainesville man charged with raping woman on his couch while his girlfriend slept in the bedroom

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Justin Leonel Haros, 20, has been arrested on a warrant for allegedly raping a woman on his couch while his girlfriend slept in the bedroom.

The victim told a Gainesville Police Department detective that in early December, she went to a bar with Haros and his girlfriend, and she and the girlfriend became intoxicated; they went back to Haros’s apartment at Tivoli Apartments (2800 block of SW 13th Street). The victim said the girlfriend vomited on herself, so she and Haros ran a bath for the girlfriend, and at some point, the victim got in the bathtub and got her shorts and underwear wet; she said she borrowed a pair of pajama pants from Haros and went to sleep on the couch.

The victim said she was awakened by a belt being unbuckled, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Haros opening his pants; he then allegedly sexually battered her, and although he got up multiple times to check that his girlfriend was still asleep, the victim said she was initially in shock and then was afraid Haros would hurt her, so she did not attempt to leave.

Eventually the girlfriend woke up and called for Haros, causing him to stop, and the victim grabbed her phone and ran out of the apartment, where she called a family member. However, he did not answer, so she sent him multiple texts, saying it was an emergency. The detective reported that the victim’s call log and texts corroborate her story. The family member finally answered, and when he called her, she told him she had just been raped.

The victim said that when she hung up the call, she realized Haros was standing behind her, and he reportedly said, “I heard what you said,” which scared her. She said she told him she just wanted to go home and asked why he had raped her; she said Haros said, “I don’t know; I’ve never done this before… Don’t tell [my girlfriend]. Don’t tell anyone.”

The victim realized her phone was dead, so she said she calmed herself down enough to convince Haros to go back into the apartment, thinking the girlfriend was probably awake and she could charge her phone. A short time later, her family member arrived, and the victim said Haros followed her out to the family member’s vehicle.

The detective reported that the family member said he initially wasn’t going to call the victim back in the middle of the night, but when she sent him a text saying it was an emergency, he called her. He said she was hysterically crying and said she’d been raped. He said he immediately went to pick her up, and when she got into the car, she was still crying and said again that she had just been raped. He took her to the hospital.

Officers obtained a search warrant for Haros’s apartment and reportedly found the clothing that the victim said she had been wearing on the night of the incident. Haros and his girlfriend were not at the location when the search warrant was executed, and neither of them reportedly responded to the detective’s request for an interview.

A warrant for Haros’s arrest was issued on June 30, and he was arrested on July 6. He has no local criminal history, and he is being held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.