A sexual battery suspect accused of attacking three women in Golden Gate remains in police custody, on unrelated charges. The Collier County Sheriff's Office posted on their Facebook page Tuesday that detectives are working on the evidence needed to officially charge the suspect, who they will not name until after he is charged.
"I would suspect in today's technological age, they're looking for DNA evidence," said attorney Mike Chionopoulos.
If detectives are in fact waiting for DNA results, it could link the suspect to the sexual batteries that date back to August 2016. Chionopoulos believes that the sheriff's office announced that they have their suspect in jail to calm people's fears.
"But they don't want to release so much information that they compromise their ongoing investigation, so that they can provide the state's attorney with information necessary to prosecute successfully," Chionopoulos said.
The most recent sexual battery happened July 23 near Golden Gate Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard, when a suspect entered a home and attacked a woman while she slept.
Chionopoulos said detectives may believe that they have their suspect based on something he said to another inmate, or during interrogation.
"It could be that they got some preliminary DNA evidence," Chionopoulos said. "But they haven't done the full testing so the sheriff's not comfortable putting that out until they get the final DNA results back."
A spokeswoman for the Collier County Sheriff's Office told Fox 4 that they don't have a timeline for when charges will be filed against the suspect.
