Florida man convicted of armed rape of newlywed 18 year old woman

A Florida man faces a minimum of 25 years in prison for sexual battery against a woman he raped in Lake Worth, FL. Jose Guzman and an accomplice raped the then 18 year old woman after an argument with her husband where the husband left her at a Wal Mart. As she walked home, the women encountered two men with a machete, who proceeded to rape her for a few hours before letting her go a few miles from home.

Guzman was convicted of armed sexual battery, which carries a mandatory minimum of 25 years to life in prison, and a second count of aggravated assault with a firearm, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years.

Guzman, 25, testified that he met the woman around 11 p.m. sitting alone outside a Hispanic nightclub in Lake Worth. He said they went to the room he rented in a trailer and had consensual sex. After that, he said the drove her to the beach in Lake Worth, where she became angry when he told her he hoped to reconcile with the mother of his young daughter.

"She became angry, hysterical," Guzman testified via an interpreter, so he dropped her off in Lake Worth.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Daliah Weiss pointed out that when sheriff's investigators questioned him about his activities that night, Guzman denied going out, denied having sex with anybody, denied knowing the victim.

"If they had consensual sex, why deny it?" Weiss said.

Assistant Public Defender Susan Winston suggested that the woman falsely claimed she was raped rather than admit to her husband that she had cheated on him. "People all the time have one-night stands," Winston said. And, she noted, the victim had no injuries, "not even a bruise."

The victim testified Tuesday that she did whatever Guzman and the other man demanded because of what they might do to her if she did not.

"Sexual battery by its nature is a violent crime. The state doesn't have to bring somebody in on a stretcher to prove that. The victim gave in because she feared for her life."

Robert Falbe, the lead detective on the case, praised the victim - and described how she used to push a sofa against her doorway because the second rapist was never found.