{"id":197511,"date":"2026-03-19T08:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197511\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:19:07","slug":"judge-to-rule-whether-miami-boys-accused-of-brutal-half-hour-rape-of-12-year-old-stay-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197511\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge to rule whether Miami boys accused of brutal, half-hour rape of 12-year-old stay jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 The three boys accused in the violent rape of a 12-year-old girl<\/a> in Miami\u2019s Overtown neighborhood faced a judge on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade Judge Richard Hersch heard arguments for and against keeping Nelson Nunez, 13, and Jusiah Jones, 12, locked up until their trials during a pre-trial detention hearing for the two boys.<\/p>\n

The third suspect, Xavier Tyson, 15, is out of custody but was also in court on Wednesday, with his own impending pre-trial detention hearing. Prosecutors also want him back behind bars.<\/p>\n

According to the Miami Police Department, the rape happened on July 18 at The Green Haven Project community garden, located at 1160 NW Second Ave., near Frederick Douglass Elementary School. <\/p>\n

The three were arrested soon after, but the case became public in February after the they were charged as adults<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MPD arrest reports state that the young girl was leaving a friend\u2019s house in Overtown when she saw Jones, Nunez, Tyson and another boy in a parking lot area.<\/p>\n

That other boy witnessed the incident but did not participate and is not facing charges, telling detectives he didn\u2019t intervene \u201cbecause he was outnumbered and was afraid of getting beat up,\u201d according to MPD.<\/p>\n

According to police, Nunez grabbed the girl and took her to a couch within the garden as Jones and the other boys followed. The report states that the victim told police that Jones and a then-14-year-old Tyson \u201cheld her by the arms and legs preventing her from leaving\u201d before Nunez started raping her.<\/p>\n

Jones is accused of shoving rocks in the girl\u2019s mouth to keep her quiet during what she described as a 30-minute sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Hersch said he wanted to see the boys\u2019 school records before making any decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see it all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 mother testified during Wednesday\u2019s hearing, saying that despite an unspecified prior case in the juvenile justice system, her son is not a troublemaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never suspected anything. His family never expected anything from Jusiah,\u201d she said. \u201cI never expected anything like this from my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguing for his release, Jones\u2019 lawyer, Jean-Michel D\u2019Escoubet, said the victim made statements suggesting Jones was remorseful and joined the two older boys under \u201cduress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client is the only one who took pause, had a conscience, and said he should stop, \u2018this is going too far,\u2019 \u2018this is rape,\u2019 \u2018we shouldn\u2019t do this,\u2019\u201d D\u2019Escoubet told the judge.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Arvind Singh retorted, \u201cI understand the victim states she feels maybe he was pressured or coerced, but he is still the man that admitted \u2018this is rape\u2019 and still continued and actually put the rocks in her mouth to keep her from screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing is set to continue Thursday morning at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Tyson\u2019s pre-trial detention hearing has been set for Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 The three boys accused in the violent rape of a 12-year-old girl in Miami\u2019s Overtown neighborhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-197511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}