He rescued a tourist from a rapist, then attacked her himself behind Key West’s most iconic landmark.
The anguished account of a Key West tourist, sexually assaulted twice in the span of an hour, is being told around the world: A woman walks from her hotel to Duval Street around 10 p.m. She has dinner and a few glasses of wine, then heads to a sports bar.
The woman tells police her memory is foggy after the sports bar, but shortly after midnight on Sept. 11, near the courthouse on Whitehead Street, she accepts a ride from a man in a silver SUV, later identified as Jorge Calderon Nunez. The woman later told police she quickly realized she was “in a bad situation,” and demanded to be let out of the car.
The victim told police the driver instead pulled her to the ground outside of his car and sexually assaulted her.
A passing Uber driver, later identified as Kerry “Calvin” Gasag, reportedly sees and halts the attack in the 300 block of Fleming Street, offering to take the woman back to her hotel. During that encounter, the woman’s phone records a seven-minute video that records Gasag asking the woman if she wanted to have sex with him and telling her he could have had sex with her “back in the bushes.”
Gasag then reportedly drives to the Southernmost Point buoy, takes the woman’s phone, drags her behind the monument and allegedly sexually assaults her. The woman’s phone was later found in a planter near a timeshare resort. Police later interviewed her at her hotel and took her to Lower Keys Medical Center, where a rape kit was completed.
Both men have been arrested. Nunez, 30, of Key West, is suspected of the first attack, but has not been charged in that incident. Nunez was arrested Sept. 17 on a prior warrant for burglary and assault while police continue the current investigation.
Gasag, 37, of Key West, was arrested at his home the same night for the attack that occurred at the Southernmost Point, where a webcam recorded the whole incident. Webcam footage reportedly shows Gasag dragging the woman in a headlock behind the monument, pulling his pants down and thrusting his body forward, the police report states.
The footage also captured Gasag retrieving the victim’s jean shorts from the buoy after she had sprinted away wearing only a shirt. Gasag faces three felony charges of sexual assault, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence.
A police dispatcher in Boston happened to be watching the Southernmost Point webcam at the time of the attack. He called Key West Police and, according to the police report, told dispatchers in Key West, “I think I’m watching a rape in progress.”
Officers arrived within minutes and found the victim, who was stopped and helped by people at a neighboring guest house who had heard her yelling. Police dispatchers alerted the officers to the presence of the webcam footage.
Gasag was arrested a short time later at his home in Santa Clara Condominiums on Northside Drive. He admitted to being with the victim at the Southernmost Point, saying they had gone there to have “consensual sex,” but denied ever actually having sex with the woman despite webcam footage that appears to contradict his denial, the police report states.
Here’s what the Keys Weekly has learned about the two suspects through court documents:
Jorge Calderon Nunez, 30, is also a suspect in a burglary and battery that occurred just before 4 a.m. on May 10, 2021, when Nunez, who was living in an apartment at 701 Southard St., allegedly entered a neighbor’s apartment through a kitchen window that she leaves open several inches to let her cat in and out.
The woman reportedly awoke to Nunez “sitting on the floor at the end of her bed squeezing her calf muscle….There were dirty, bare footprints leading from the kitchen window to the foot of the woman’s bed,” the arrest warrant for Nunez states.
Key West Police questioned Nunez in May after the victim and her roommate had identified him. He denied the accusations, and police declined to arrest him until they received the results of a DNA test.
In an arrest affidavit filed after the Sept. 11 sexual battery, Key West Police Detective Marcus del Valle states that he contacted Florida Department of Law Enforcement and was told the DNA results from the May incident would not be ready until mid-October.
“Since the time of the [May] incident, Nunez has been identified as a suspect in a forcible sexual battery on the 300 block of Fleming Street,” del Valle wrote. “Due to Nunez’s escalating behavior, and the fact that probable cause exists to charge him, waiting for the results of the DNA analysis will result in a danger to the community.”
Judge Peary Fowler signed an arrest warrant for Nunez on Sept. 17 and he was arrested that evening at 701 Southard St. Nunez was born in Cuba and previously lived in Lexington, Kentucky, according to court records. Nunez’s bond was set at $75,000
Gasag has no prior arrests in Monroe County, other than an arrest for driving unknowingly on a suspended license, which was later cleared. The police report states he works at a retail store on Duval Street and drives for Uber, although he was not responding to a ride request when he allegedly interrupted the first attack. Gasag is being held on a $175,000 bond.
Both men have applied for a public defender and are scheduled for arraignment on Oct. 7 before Judge Mark Wilson.
Police Chief Sean Brandenburg commended his officers and detectives for their work, telling the Keys Weekly, “I am proud of the men and women of the Key West Police Department. The detective bureau’s dedication, devotion and commitment to our community’s safety is commendable.”
