Man Wanted In Christmas Eve Sexual Assault Caught
MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – A Miami Beach man who reportedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped a woman over Christmas is behind bars.
Freddy Padilla, 44, was taken into custody on Wednesday in Broward County and charged with sexual battery with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.
Miami Beach police said Padilla met up with the 48-year-old woman on the evening of December 24th. Over the next day and a half, they said he beat and raped her in his Ocean Drive apartment and in the woman's own apartment.
On December 26th, the woman's daughter went looking for her mother since she had not shown up on Christmas Day. Police said she found her battered mother and Padilla in the woman's apartment. When she began to confront Padilla, he took off and hasn't been seen since.
Padilla was a maintenance man at the Blue Ocean Hotel and also lived there.
David Possin, who said he knows Padilla, described him last December as a man who was often drunk and said he was like a time bomb ready to go off.
"He was drunk often and when he became drunk he was very aggressive and he has a history of violence towards woman," Possin said. "This was not the first time. He had a rap sheet. I was expecting that the way he was behaving. He was a bomb ready to blow up. The three weeks before Christmas he was a non-stop drunk and irrational."
Police said Padilla has a violent past.
Padilla reportedly had, at one time, dated the woman he's accused of attacking.
"It was an on and off again girlfriend, but it wasn't a tight relationship…but she would come over and they would drink together," Possin said. "They would be drunk together."
Padilla is being held without bail at the Main Jail in Broward County.
