A man has been arrested months after he allegedly raped a woman inside her luxury high-rise apartment in downtown Miami, and more than three years after he was arrested for a similar crime in Brickell that he was still on probation for, police said.
Diontae Blackman, 26, was arrested Tuesday on charges of armed sexual battery, burglary with assault or battery, and kidnapping with a weapon, firearm or aggravated battery, an arrest report said.
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According to the report, the alleged incident happened the night of Aug. 26 at an apartment on Northeast 5th Street.
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The 20-year-old victim said her two roommates had left the apartment and about five minutes later, as she was sitting on her balcony, she noticed a stranger standing in her kitchen.
She approached the man and questioned what he was doing in the apartment, and she said he pointed to the hallway and mentioned the word "room" while holding the top of a broken glass bottle in his hand, the report said.
The victim said she doesn't speak English well and had a hard time communicating with the man but at one point the man "took his right hand and ran his thumb from left to right across his neck area with the top of the broken glass bottle in hand," the report said.
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The victim said the gesture implied that her life was in danger so she complied as Blackman led her to a bedroom.
Once in the bedroom, Blackman pulled down his pants and exposed himself, and told the woman to remove her shorts and underwear and sit on the bed, the report said.
He gestured toward his genitals and fearing for her safety, the woman performed a sex act on him, the report said.
After several minutes, Blackman gestured for her to turn around then raped her, before he eventually left the apartment, the report said.
The woman said once she heard the apartment door close, she ran and locked it and called her roommates, saying she'd been raped and giving a description of the man.
The roommates were approaching the building entrance when they spotted Blackman, who matched the description given by the victim, the report said.
They tried to stop him but he pushed the female roommate to the ground and got into an altercation with the male roommate before he fled on foot.
Video from the building showed the suspect entering the lobby, and a Ring camera from the hallway of the victim's apartment showed him on her floor, the report said.
The video also showed the altercation between Blackman and the roommates.
The victim went to a rape treatment center and on Nov. 26, a DNA sample obtained from the victim matched Blackman, authorities said.
On Tuesday, Blackman was taken into custody by Miami Police's Felony Apprehension Team at his home, and he was booked into jail.
"A DNA match did some back with the defendant's match and information which allowed our detectives and our team to go ahead and apprehend this disgusting individual who should not be on the street anymore," Miami Police spokesman Rafael Horta said Wednesday. "He should be behind bars hopefully for a while."
Blackman appeared before Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer on Wednesday.
"So he had a broken glass bottle and he's gesturing that he's gonna slit her throat," Glazer said as she read details from the arrest report. "They had the DNA testing that matched this defendant, Mr. Blackman."
Glazer ordered Blackman held without bond.
It was also announced that Blackman was already on probation in an attempted sexual battery case from three years ago with similar details to the August rape.
In that case, Blackman was accused of following a woman into her Brickell condo building and attempting to sexually batter her back on May 18, 2021.
According to an arrest report, Blackman followed the woman into her building, the Brickell Flatiron on Southeast 1st Avenue, where surveillance footage showed him in an elevator with the victim, pretending to be on his phone.
As the woman was opening the door to her unit, Blackman pushed her inside and began to attack her, the report said.
The report said Blackman struck the woman several times and threatened to stab her in the neck if she didn't comply with his demands that she perform a sex act on him.
Blackman got the woman into her bedroom and told her to take off her shirt, but when he tried to force her onto her bed, she resisted and a struggle ensued, the report said.
The woman was able to barricade herself in her bedroom, open her balcony door and scream for help as Blackman fled, police said.
Police said they received a tip from someone who recognized Blackman from the surveillance footage. Investigators questioned him and he confessed to the crime, officials said.
Records showed Blackman was sentenced this past April to 22 months in prison on a burglary assault charge, along with five years of probation. He was released from prison in May.
Horta said in the August incident, it appeared the roommates may have left the apartment door unlocked.
"Just make sure your door's always locked, because sometimes something as simple as just making sure your car door's locked or your front door is locked can divert any type of crime because a person may just continue on," he said.
