{"id":255209,"date":"2026-05-02T09:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255209\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:59:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:59:28","slug":"man-accused-of-sexually-abusing-13-year-old-boy-after-breaking-into-miami-dade-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255209\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of sexually abusing 13-year-old boy after breaking into Miami-Dade apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0May 1, 2026 at 9:46 AM<\/p>\n<p>Warning: Article contains graphic details. Viewer discretion is advised <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla.  \u2014 A 37-year-old man was arrested Thursday by the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office after breaking into an apartment and molesting a 13-year-old boy who was sleeping inside, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/05\/01\/mdso-arrestan-a-hombre-por-irrumpir-en-apartamento-familiar-en-el-noroeste-de-miami-dade-y-tocar-a-nino-dormido\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/05\/01\/mdso-arrestan-a-hombre-por-irrumpir-en-apartamento-familiar-en-el-noroeste-de-miami-dade-y-tocar-a-nino-dormido\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to an arrest report, Karl Heinz Mercier, of northeast Miami-Dade, broke into the victim\u2019s apartment unit at the Park Towers on Northwest 155th Lane at about 4 a.m., laid on the victim\u2019s bed as he was asleep and then placed his hand inside the victim\u2019s underwear and fondled his penis.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/EL4KUQ4NEVBDBN6HHFNJMBX6KE.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>(WPLG) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Deputies said the boy immediately screamed out to alert his parents who were sleeping in a separate room, but Mercier told him, \u201cNothing is going to happen. No one is going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to the report, the boy\u2019s parents confronted Mercier as he tried to flee the apartment and he was then detained by responding deputies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The victim\u2019s parents told deputies they do not know Mercier and he did not have permission to enter their home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Deputies said Mercier confessed to entering the home without permission and touching the boy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He was arrested on charges of burglary with assault or battery and attempted sexual battery on a minor. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As of Friday morning, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed his bond as \u201cto be set.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Roy Ramos\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/a327c0b5-d59c-45a5-a2.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Roy Ramos<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Roy Ramos joined the Local 10 News team in 2018. Roy is a South Florida native who grew up in Florida City. He attended Christopher Columbus High School,\u00a0Homestead Senior High\u00a0School and graduated from St. Thomas University.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Amanda Batchelor\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/83776d46-011c-4018-ab.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Amanda Batchelor<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0May 1, 2026 at 9:46 AM Warning: Article contains graphic details. Viewer discretion is advised MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-255209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255209","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=255209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}