GADSDEN CO., Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man is arrested in Gadsden County on sexual assault and car jacking charges.
On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, Gadsden County deputies were called to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital for a sexual assault claim. The 67-year old female taxi cab driver, who deputies say was badly injured, stated that she was robbed and sexually assaulted in Havana, Florida.
According to the victim, she was dispatched to Frenchtown in Tallahassee, where she picked up a black male and took him to a home off of Bell Road in the Coon Bottom community in Havana. That's where she claims he attacked her in her taxi cab. Deputies say the victim was carjacked, driven to several areas in Havana where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and robbed. Deputies also say, the victim was dragged from the car and sexually assaulted again, before managing to get away from her attacker and drove to the hospital in her taxi cab, unclothed.
Deputies put out an alert for the victim's attacker, and the next day, a witness came forward with a tip that the suspect was seen in a vehicle Friday morning in Havana. Investigators located the vehicle, but the driver took off, leading them on a chase from Havana to South Georgia, where the driver lost control and crashed the vehicle.
GCSO spokesperson Ulysses Jenkins says the driver, Jacob Harrison, ran off, but deputies arrested his passenger, Michael Mario Hayes, 35, who was the suspect in the sexual assault. Deputies say Hayes later confessed during an interview with them.
Hayes was booked into the Gadsden County Jail on three counts of sexual battery, carjacking, robbery, defrauding an innkeeper, violation of probation and aggravated assault on a person 65 years or older.
The victim continues to recover.
