{"id":322388,"date":"2026-06-28T07:49:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/322388\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:49:33","slug":"third-teen-charged-in-overtown-rape-must-stay-in-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/322388\/","title":{"rendered":"Third teen charged in Overtown rape must stay in jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Defendant<\/p>\n

Defendant Xavier Tyson, 15, who is charged as an adult in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Overtown, attends a bond hearing in front of Judge Richard Hersch in Courtroom 4-8 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami on Friday, June 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

The third boy charged as an adult in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Overtown will stay in jail as he awaits his trial, a judge ruled Friday.<\/p>\n

Xavier Tyson, 15, fidgeted with his hands as Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Richard Hersch issued his ruling. Prosecutors sought to keep Tyson in jail, citing the gravity of the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not comfortable with the degree of culpability,\u201d the judge said. \u201cHe\u2019s remaining detained.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Judge Judge Richard Hersch listens to lawyers in a bond hearing for Xavier Tyson, 15, on Friday, June 26, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Tyson had an Arthur hearing, which allows judges to consider setting bonds for defendants charged with crimes that aren\u2019t normally eligible for bail. In such a hearing, the state has to establish that \u201cproof is evident and the presumption great\u201d that the accused person is guilty. That\u2019s a high burden \u2014 often considered even greater than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

Tyson, Nelson Nu\u00f1ez, 14, and Jusiah Jones, 13, are charged with sexual battery and false imprisonment in connection to the June 18, 2025, rape. Their cases are being handled in adult court; the three boys have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

\"Jusiah Jusiah Jones, center right, looks at his family members while he and Nelson Nu\u00f1ez, right, attend their bond hearing on March 18, 2026, at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Tyson, who surrendered himself to authorities, was arrested on June 4, months after Nu\u00f1ez and Jones were handcuffed. In March, Jones was released from jail on total lockdown house arrest, meaning he is monitored around the clock by an ankle monitor. Nu\u00f1ez and Tyson are being held at the Metro West Detention Center.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: One of the boys charged in 12-year-old\u2019s rape can bond out of jail, judge rules<\/a><\/p>\n

During the hearing, attorney Marlene Montaner, who is representing Tyson, pointed out that there are \u201cmultiple variations\u201d about what happened the night of the sexual assault. The three boys gave statements with conflicting details, the attorney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, all we have is the word of three teenagers who lied in their interviews,\u201d Montaner said. \u201c… We have unreliable narrating because the details don\u2019t match up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Tyson, prosecutor Arvind Singh said, was the reason the sexual assault took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyson is at the same level as culpability as Nelson Nu\u00f1ez,\u201d Singh said. \u201cHe was the one who encouraged Nelson Nu\u00f1ez to commit sexual battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Defendant Xavier Tyson, 15, who is charged as an adult in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Overtown, attends his bond hearing on Friday, June 26, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Tyson\u2019s aunt, Amadonne Gabriel, addressed the court during the hearing. At the time of the incident, Tyson was living with his grandmother in Miami, but Gabriel said he moved to live with her in the Orlando area. Tyson\u2019s mother, she said, died when he was 4 months old.<\/p>\n

Gabriel said she was shocked by the allegations against Tyson. She said her nephew is a respectful and obedient child who enjoys playing with his cousins.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would never do anything like that,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n

Tyson, she said, received specialized instruction in school and reads at a third-grade level. Gabriel said she noticed Tyson is unlike other children of his same age; she said she has to constantly repeat things for him to understand. Tyson shook his head and nodded as his aunt spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not an average 15-year-old,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cHis mind is basically on games, like kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Defendant Xavier Tyson, 15, reacts during his bond hearing on Friday, June 26, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com A harrowing assault<\/p>\n

The rape happened around 10 p.m. in the garden area of the Green Haven Project community at 1160 NW Second Ave., according to a police report.<\/p>\n

The girl told Miami Special Victims Unit detectives that Nu\u00f1ez grabbed her as she left her friend\u2019s house and took her to a couch in the garden. There, Jones and Tyson held her arms and legs down to prevent her from escaping, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Det. Louis Joseph testified on Friday that Tyson not only held the girl down, but fondled her breasts.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez then began raping her while Jones stuffed rocks in her mouth to try to stop her from screaming, detectives said in the report. The horrifying ordeal lasted about 30 minutes, the girl told police, only ending after the boys ran away when they heard the victim\u2019s father calling out her name in the distance, the report says.<\/p>\n

The father and a witness, who\u2019s a neighbor of the girl, were the first to report the incident to police, the report alleges. The witness flagged down officers the next day and told them she believed the girl was raped.<\/p>\n

She said that between 10 and 10:30 p.m., she was picking up her mail and heard a girl screaming, \u201cStop. I\u2019m not playing. I\u2019m not playing,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

The woman then yelled out into the distance, \u201cWho\u2019s screaming?\u201d she told detectives. She then saw her neighbor, the girl\u2019s father, yelling out for his daughter, the report states.<\/p>\n

There was another boy who was with the group, but police say he did not participate in the attack. He told detectives he did not intervene because he \u201cwas afraid of getting beat up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nelson Nelson Nu\u00f1ez, left, looks back as he and Jusiah Jones, right, exit the courtroom on March 18, 2026, after a hearing related to the rape of a 12-year-old girl. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Grethel Aguila<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defendant Xavier Tyson, 15, who is charged as an adult in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-322388","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\/322388","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=322388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}