Mobile man charged with rape, assault after woman runs to safety in Perdido Key
A 51-year-old Mobile man is in the Escambia County (Fla.) Jail, charged with raping and assaulting a woman over the course of two days in April in Perdido Key.
Herman Moore is additionally charged with kidnapping, battery and obstruction of justice. He was taken into custody Wednesday, nearly six weeks after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
He remains jailed under total bond of $805,000, with a court date of June 23, according to the jail docket.
An arrest report obtained by WEAR in Pensacola indicates the victim and Moore were visiting Perdido Key together on April 17 when an argument began as they returned to their room.
The woman told Escambia County deputies she was laying in bed when Moore struck her in the face and forcibly had sex with her against her will. Afterward, according to the report, Moore forced the woman into the living room area, where he struck her in the face again.
Moore would later hit the woman again and strangle her, the report says, and then again forced the woman to have sex with him. When she tried to flee, Moore reportedly stomped on her chest.
At one point, Moore grabbed a long kitchen knife and threatened to kill them both, according to the report.
The next morning, after Moore had fallen asleep, the woman said she ran out the front door and began banging on nearby doors seeking help, but no one responded. Moore had earlier taken the woman’s phone to prevent her from calling for help.
She then ran out into the roadway in an attempt to flag down a passing car, but none stopped. Moore found the woman and forced her back to the room, according to the report.
The report also says Moore and the victim came up with a story to give to a doctor that the woman had been hit in the face by a baseball. Ultimately, however, the woman notified law enforcement instead.
According to the report, the victim had numerous visible injuries, including swelling on the left side of her face/eye; discoloration and scabs under the left eye; an open wound to the inside left corner of her mouth; a bruise on the front left side of the neck; scrapes to her right thumb and left index finger; bruising to the right arm near the bicep; bruising to the front of her right shoulder; and a large bruise below the right collarbone and above the breast.
Moore is scheduled to appear in Escambia County Circuit Court on June 23.