Photo: Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center
A Florida "predator" who lured rich men to hotels in order to pepper-spray and rob them of luxury items was given a surprisingly lenient punishment for her actions.
Esther Torres, 20, avoided jail time, instead being sentenced to five years' probation for two incidents last Wednesday (July 16), Law & Crime reported. Torres was accused of isolating the men and spraying them in two separate incidents, one of which resulted in her stealing an expensive Hugo Boss watch and the other a $22,000 Rolex.
The initial incident took place at the Breakwater Hotel in Miami Beach, with Torres pepper-spraying the male victim and stealing his Hugo Boss watch off his wrist, as well as more than $200 in cash and Euros and several credit cards.
The second incident took place at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, with Torres stealing a $22,000 Rolex Submariner after pepper-spraying the man who claimed he was left temporarily blind after the incident. Surveillance footage showed Torres leaving both hotels after the incidents took place.
“We have a predator, and she’s preying on male victims,” said Mitch Novick, owner of the nearby Sherbrooke Hotel, via WSVN, adding that he also gave authorities surveillance footage from his hotel.
Police were investigating Torres in April when she arrived at the scene of a traffic stop resulting in a man's arrest. The 20-year-old was later identified as the suspect of the two robberies by her driver's license, which she provided at the prior traffic stop, and finally arrested in May after being pulled over.
Police confirmed her identity was based on an image from a "need to identify" flyer shared by authorities. Torres initially faced two counts of first-degree robbery and was jailed without bond, but later granted a recognizance in June and is no longer in the jail system following her probation sentencing.