SWEETWATER, Fla. – A man is facing four felony charges after Sweetwater police said he committed a disturbing Tuesday morning home invasion targeting a senior who lives in the Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park.
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An arrest report states that surveillance footage showed Silverio Franco, 44, busting open the door of the woman’s mobile home in the 11000 block of Northwest Second Terrace using a 4x4 piece of lumber ― after spending 11 minutes trying to get in through the door and a window.
Police said the victim told investigators that she was in the bathroom just after 7 a.m., heard a loud banging noise, exited and encountered a man later identified as Franco “telling her something in Spanish.”
Authorities said she went to her bedroom and locked the door “in fear of the unknown male and what he was going to do to her.”
Franco then broke in, police said.
Once inside, he “began to push her toward the bed” as he “kept asking for a kiss” as she tried to leave the bedroom, the report states.
Police said the woman “continued talking to him and pushing him away while trying to escape” her home.
At one point, Franco “pressed her against the wall” in an “attempt to kiss her,” police said.
Authorities said she eventually managed to get away, run to a neighbor’s home and call police.
Police said Franco, who is homeless, left the scene but first checked the victim’s vehicle to see if it was unlocked.
The arrest report states officers found and detained Franco after a trespassing call. Police said the woman was too “shaken up” to identify him, but officers were able to match Franco to the man seen in the surveillance footage.
Authorities said he consented to a DNA swab, waived his right to an attorney and made an admission that was redacted from the publicly released report.
They arrested him on charges of burglary, false imprisonment, battery on a person 65 or older and felony criminal mischief.
Jail records show Franco was out on bond for burglary, grand theft and criminal mischief at the time.
A Miami-Dade judge ordered he be held without bond Wednesday. Franco was in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Wednesday afternoon.