Two North Carolina spring breakers were arrested and charged with drugging, raping and stealing a woman who later died at a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, officials said on Monday.
The men, Evoire Collier, 21, and Dorian Taylor, 24, face charges of sexual assault, theft and other crimes, court records show. They remain in custody; the bond value was not listed on Monday night.
The authorities in Miami Beach have been struggling to cope with waves of bathers that have flocked to the area since last month. There have been more than 1,000 arrests since February, and on Sunday, the city imposed a new curfew and other restrictions that could last until mid-April.
Citing police records, NBC Miami reported that Collier and Taylor were seen in a surveillance video entering the Albion Hotel on Thursday with a 24-year-old woman. Half an hour later, he said, Collier and Taylor left without the woman and were later arrested and detained.
During a bail hearing on Monday, a prosecutor said the woman was so drunk when she entered the hotel that she could not give her consent. It was not clear when or why the woman died.
Judge Mindy Glazer said one of the defendants acknowledged giving the woman a green pill with the characters “a30”, but that it was unclear what was in the pill and that the toxicology report was pending.
Authorities accused Collier and Taylor of using credit cards stolen from the woman after they left the hotel, NBC Miami reported.
A relative told the station that the woman had traveled to the area alone.
The men’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A woman who identified herself as Collier’s older sister and legal guardian said at the bail hearing that he never had any problems and that she was “perplexed” by the charges.
“I can attest to his character,” she said. “Please let my brother come home.”