A 24-Year-Old Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Broke Into a 77-Year-Old Woman’s Home and Raped Her. The Sheriff Isn’t Hiding His Rage: “Out of Control.”
- 24 years old age of Axel Antonio Espinal Herrera, a Honduran national in the U.S. illegally, allegedly found showering nearby after the alleged attack — Polk County Sheriff's Office
- 4:00 a.m., Aug. 29, 2026 time investigators say he broke into the sleeping 77-year-old victim's Mulberry home — Polk County Sheriff's Office
- 7 felony charges including kidnapping, sexual battery by force, and burglary with battery, each enhanced one degree because of his immigration status — Fla. Stat. § 775.0848
- No bond held without bond, with a federal immigration detainer placed on him; two other Honduran nationals at the scene were separately taken into ICE custody — Polk County Sheriff's Office
Axel Antonio Espinal Herrera, 24, a national of Honduras living in the United States illegally, is accused of breaking into a 77-year-old woman’s home in Mulberry, Florida, before dawn on August 29, 2026, forcibly stripping her clothing and sexually battering her while she slept. When she broke free and fled outside naked and screaming for help, deputies say he chased her down, dragged her back inside, and choked her before running off.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies found him showering at a house nearby less than an hour later. According to the sheriff’s office, scratches covering his body matched the account the victim gave, and a search warrant recovered clothing and DNA evidence tying him to the scene. He now faces seven felony charges — each elevated one degree under a 2025 Florida law because of his immigration status — and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd (R) is not softening how he describes it.
Espinal Herrera has been charged but not tried, and he is presumed innocent unless and until a jury says otherwise. What follows is drawn from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit, its Aug. 31 press release, and Sheriff Judd’s on-camera remarks — all described here as allegations, pending prosecution by the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Tenth Judicial Circuit.
According to the sheriff’s office, Espinal Herrera entered the victim’s Mulberry home sometime around 4 a.m. on Saturday, August 29, while she was asleep. Deputies say he forcibly removed her clothing and sexually battered her. When the 77-year-old woman managed to get free, she ran from the house naked, screaming for help — and, investigators allege, Espinal Herrera chased her down in the yard, dragged her back inside, and choked her before fleeing into the pre-dawn dark.
Deputies responded and began searching the immediate area. Investigators located a man matching the victim’s description showering at a nearby residence — Espinal Herrera, deputies say, still bearing fresh scratches across his body consistent with a struggle. He was taken into custody at the scene. The sheriff’s office says two other Honduran nationals were present at that same residence; neither has been charged in connection with the assault, but both were found to be in the country illegally and were separately turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The sheriff’s office has not disclosed how long Espinal Herrera had been living in the United States, how he entered the country, or what relationship, if any, he had to the victim or her neighborhood before that morning. No prior criminal or immigration record has been reported for him in any account of the case, and none is implied here — the seven charges he now faces stem entirely from the events of August 29.
#BREAKING Polk deputies capture violent rapist illegally in the country from Honduras hours after he breaks into elderly victim's home and sexually batters her. The 77-year-old victim was awakened at around 4 am, Saturday, August 29, 2026…
The sheriff’s office says the case against Espinal Herrera rests on more than the scratches deputies found when they located him. A search warrant executed on the residence where he was found recovered clothing investigators say matched what the victim described her attacker wearing, along with DNA evidence. The victim was later shown a photo lineup and identified Espinal Herrera as the man who attacked her, according to the sheriff’s office.
A separate account of the arrest circulated on social media within hours, amplified by accounts that track immigration-related crime reporting rather than by law enforcement itself — a reminder that the sheriff’s office affidavit and press release, not aggregator posts, remain the operative record of what investigators say happened.
Case details matching the Polk County Sheriff's Office account of the Mulberry home invasion and sexual battery, including the victim's age and the timeline of the arrest.
Espinal Herrera was booked on kidnapping, sexual battery by force, burglary with battery, tampering with evidence, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and loitering and prowling. Under Florida law, every one of those charges is enhanced by one degree because he is in the country illegally — a provision codified at Fla. Stat. § 775.0848, created by Senate Bill 4-C, which Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed into law on February 13, 2025. He is being held without bond, and a federal immigration detainer has been lodged against him.
The enhancement did not arrive in a vacuum. Florida has barred local sanctuary policies statewide since 2019 under Senate Bill 168, a ban the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld in 2023. SB 4-C built on that framework two years later, adding new state-level immigration-enforcement crimes and, in this case, the charge-severity increase now attached to Espinal Herrera’s docket. The case itself will be prosecuted by State Attorney Brian Haas (R), whose office covers Polk, Highlands, and Hardee counties as Florida’s Tenth Judicial Circuit; neither Haas’s office nor the governor’s office has issued a case-specific statement, and none is attributed to either here. As of publication, Espinal Herrera had not yet been arraigned and no trial date had been set — the case is still in its earliest procedural stage, with the enhanced charges standing as allegations the state will have to prove.
Sheriff Judd, who has led the Polk County Sheriff’s Office since 2005 and won a sixth term in 2024 with more than 80 percent of the vote, has built a reputation over two decades for blunt, unscripted briefings. This one was no exception. “Sexual battery of an individual is without a doubt one of the most horrific crimes that occurs,” Judd told reporters. “He was a young man, 24 years of age, sexually battering a 77-year-old woman after he broke into her house… Do I need to say more?”
“A violent, out-of-control sexual battery on a stranger even elevates that one more level. And then you take on top of that that the suspect is in this country illegally — that pushes it over the top.”
Sheriff Grady Judd (R), Polk County
Judd added that Espinal Herrera “is graphically very vile and out of control,” language rare even for a sheriff known for candor. The victim’s son, speaking to WFLA, was no less direct: “A monster,” he said. “How do you describe a person that attacks an elderly disabled woman in her home at 4 in the morning?” Neither man’s anger changes what still has to happen next — a trial, a jury, and a verdict — but both capture how a single overnight break-in in a small central Florida city became a statement about who is allowed to stay in the country at all.
Axel Antonio Espinal Herrera, a 24-year-old Honduran national in the U.S. illegally, faces seven felony charges — including kidnapping, sexual battery by force, and burglary with battery — over the alleged pre-dawn attack on a 77-year-old Mulberry, Florida woman in her own home. Each charge carries a one-degree enhancement under a 2025 Florida law targeting defendants in the country illegally, and he is held without bond with a federal immigration detainer attached. No prior record has been reported for him, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted at trial. Sheriff Grady Judd (R) has called the alleged attack “out of control” and “over the top” — language that reflects the severity of the allegations, not a verdict that has not yet been reached.
