Homeless man charged with sexual battery of a 14-year-old girl he picked up at a gas station

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Willie Dwayne West IV, 26, has been charged with two counts of sexual battery on a victim under the age of 18 after allegedly picking up a 14-year-old at a gas station and having sex with her.

The 14-year-old victim reportedly told a Gainesville Police Department officer that she met West on June 16 at a gas station, they started talking, and she agreed to get in his car; she said he lived in his car.

The victim said they drove to a Publix near her home, West asked her to get in the back seat with him, and they began engaging in sexual activity.

The victim said she spent the night with him in his car in the Publix parking lot, and the next morning, he took her to his job as a trash collector; she said she stayed in his car for the whole shift, and then he dropped her off at a library and never came back to get her.

The detective reviewed surveillance video from the gas station and reportedly saw a man talking to the victim before the victim got into his vehicle. The detective took a screenshot from the video and went to the GFL garbage company, where a manager identified West and said he used to work for the company. The victim positively identified West in a photo lineup.

West was arrested on July 7 and charged with two counts of sexual battery of a victim under the age of 18. He was previously arrested in Alachua County in 2024 for threatening to shoot a man, but the charge was later dropped; he was also arrested on a lewd/lascivious charge in Marion County in 2020 that was dropped after the victim stopped cooperating. 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.