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By Staff
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Authorities have charged 39-year-old Jermain Antwan Herring with kidnapping and sexual assault following an incident on February 21. The charges come after Herring’s arrest on April 2 for suspected drug trafficking activities.
According to the Gainesville Police Department (GPD), an officer observed Herring engaging in what appeared to be drug transactions in the Midtown area during the early hours of April 2. Prior reports had linked Herring to various criminal activities, including stalking adolescents, robberies, voyeurism, and sexual assaults. In a report, the officer described Herring as someone who “preys on vulnerable individuals in the city.”
Following his arrest, Herring faced charges of possessing drugs with the intent to sell and loitering, with Judge William Davis setting his bail at $210,000.
On April 3, a GPD detective brought additional charges related to the February incident, where a man claimed he was kidnapped and sexually assaulted while intoxicated. The victim recounted arranging an Uber ride but mistakenly entering a red vehicle. Once inside, the driver allegedly exposed the victim’s genitals and assaulted him. The victim, impaired by intoxication, was unable to defend himself. He lost consciousness and, upon regaining it, found himself in a vulnerable position with the driver continuing the assault. Again, he was unable to resist due to his condition.
The victim said the driver grabbed his shoulders and forced his upper body into the back seat, through the opening between the front seats, and raped him; he said he told the man to stop at least once, but he was unable to stop what was happening. He said he lost consciousness again and woke up on the ground outside his apartment building.
The detective’s investigation found that the victim had taken a rideshare alone to go downtown, just after midnight on February 21; he’d had several alcoholic beverages before leaving, and he consumed additional alcoholic beverages at a bar.
Surveillance video reportedly shows the victim walking downtown at about 1:52 a.m.; he is struggling to walk and appears to be significantly intoxicated. At one point, he stumbles off the sidewalk and into the street. Cell phone data and surveillance video confirm that the victim was in the 200 block of North Main Street for about 30 minutes, and he was actively using his phone during this period, although some of the interactions, such as looking up his own contact information and trying to call himself, were described by the detective as “patently senseless.”
About 20 minutes later, surveillance video shows the victim in the 100 block of South Main Street, where he is still struggling to walk. At about 2:50 a.m., the victim stops in front of 120 South Main Street and manages to request a rideshare; however, the request had an incorrect location, presumably because of the victim’s level of intoxication.
At 2:58 a.m., the rideshare arrived, but it was about four or five blocks away because of the incorrect location; the victim received a notification that the ride was there, and less than three minutes later, a red car pulled over, the driver spoke to him, and the victim got into the red car. The detective noted that surveillance video shows the red car driving past the victim at least three times in the 10 minutes the victim was at that location.
Data from the victim’s phone shows that the victim did not use his phone between 3:09 a.m. and 3:31 a.m., which is a contrast to the activity in the previous hour and may indicate that the victim was either unable to access the phone or incapable of using it.
About 20 minutes after the victim got into the red car, the victim’s cell phone was used, the Uber app was accessed, and text was entered into Google Maps; the phone had no further activity until 3:51 a.m., when the phone recognized that it was at the victim’s residence.
The detective noted that Herring is known to drive a red four-door Kia, and the Kia was seen traveling eastbound from 1300 West University Avenue at 2:48 a.m. on February 21. Surveillance video in the area reportedly shows a red four-door Kia traveling past the victim twice before stopping at about 3:01 a.m.
The detective obtained a search warrant for location data from Herring’s phone, and the data reportedly showed that Herring’s phone was at the same location as the red Kia when the red Kia passed the victim. Between 3:01 a.m. and 3:50 a.m., Herring’s phone and the victim’s phone show the same location, and Herring’s phone reportedly stopped for about 10 minutes at the victim’s apartment before returning downtown.
The victim underwent a sexual assault examination a few hours after the alleged incident, and his blood alcohol level was still over 0.300 mg/dl.
Herring has been charged with kidnapping and two counts of sexual battery. He has 15 felony convictions (one violent) and 3 misdemeanor convictions (three violent); he was arrested for voyeurism in January 2025, but the charge was eventually dropped. He has served three state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2021. Judge William Davis ordered him held without bail on the new charges, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.