No bond for Tice man accused of kidnapping and sexual assault

Reporter: Annalise Iraola Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

A man accused of kidnapping and sexual assault will be held without bond.

Raymond De Jesus was arrested on Prospect Avenue in Tice Thursday.

Deputies say he sexually assaulted a girl at knifepoint in Schandler Hall Park that morning.

We learned that the victim was able to call her grandmother while it was happening but that call was disconnected.

This and a mountain of evidence, including a long criminal record, helped the judge agree to grant the state’s request. Now, De Jesus will be held without bond behind bars before his trial begins.

Raymond De Jesus was led into the courtroom with hands and feet shackled, wearing a light pink safety smock.

He’s accused of sexual battery and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl who was just trying to walk to her bus stop in Tice at 6:00 a.m. last Thursday.

She was approached by a male, and she didn’t know his name. She attempted to keep walking and was taken by the male to a nearby playground and sexually battered at knifepoint.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office report said De Jesus held a knife to her throat and said, “You’re going to die,” as he dragged her to the playground.

On Monday in court, De Jesus was seen staring into the camera, then visibly agitated and reacting poorly to what he is accused of doing.

In a testimony, Detective Alejo with LCSO‘s special victim’s unit described the phone call her grandmother told detectives she received from her granddaughter during the assault.

The grandmother told detectives she usually drove her granddaughter, but sensing she was tired from her late shift, her granddaughter didn’t ask for a ride and chose to walk that morning.

According to the report, the victim told detectives months prior that De Jesus had approached her before at the same park, asking for her phone number.

According to the report, detectives found the victim’s cellphone number saved in De Jesus’s cellphone as “Mexican girl”.

His next court date is October 4.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.