Florida inmate returns to Broward jail after his DNA linked to massage parlor rape: cops

DNA evidence connected a man locked up in a Florida state prison to the sexual assault of a Broward massage parlor employee in 2017 — years after the crime, investigators say.

Gilberto Erasmo Gonzalez, 35, fell on police’s radar in November 2022 when a DNA sample taken from him after he was sentenced to six years in prison was uploaded to a federal database. The DNA, according to a police report, was a match to that found after a woman was raped at the Hollywood business.

Gonzalez was transferred Tuesday to the Broward Main Jail from the Wakulla Correctional Institution, a prison in northern Florida. He faces charges of sexual battery, false imprisonment and battery.

In June 2017, Gonzalez entered the Hollywood massage parlor and told the female employee that he wanted a massage, the report says. As she prepared to charge Gonzalez’s credit card, he pulled down her underwear.

Gonzalez, police say, dragged the victim into a nearby room that had a bed inside. The employee, pleading for help, screamed for him to “go out.” He began to strangle her, also covering her mouth.

The woman fought to free herself but was quickly yanked back, according to the report. Fearing for her life, she stopped resisting — and Gonzalez raped her.

Years went by, with few answers, until there was a break in the case.

Detectives, after the database hit, obtained a search warrant for Gonzalez’s DNA, the report states. In March 2023, investigators visited Gonzalez in prison and swabbed the inside of his cheeks to collect his DNA. They tried to interview him, but he declined to speak with them without a lawyer.

By January, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab confirmed that Gonzalez’s DNA was a match to the sexual assault, according to the report. The analysis concluded that the DNA was almost 7,000 times more likely to have originated from Gonzalez than from another individual.

A troubling pattern?

In 2022, Gonzalez pleaded no contest to a Dania Beach burglary during which he entered a woman’s bedroom, covered her mouth and pushed her down on a table. He admitted to breaking in with “the intent to engage in sexual activities,” according to a report.

That decision is ultimately why he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Gonzalez, who wasn’t known to the woman or anyone else living in the home, also confessed that he had entered the house on two separate occasions and watched her sleep, the report states.

Shortly after his arrest, the victim filed a stalking violence injunction against Gonzalez in Broward circuit court. Gonzalez was ordered to stay away from her home, place of employment and the Florida International University campus, where she was studying.

The petition states that Gonzalez broke in through the back door of the house. When she noticed him, she screamed and woke up her father, who called 911 and subdued Gonzalez until deputies arrived.

The injunction was dismissed in August 2022 — two months before Gonzalez was sentenced — after the victim didn’t show up to court.

Gonzalez will appear before Broward Circuit Court Judge Edward Merrigan for his arraignment on May 28.