Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Roman Duncan Dontae Mitchell, 34, faces charges as an accessory to sexual battery, accused of facilitating the assault of a woman at The Lodge at Meridian in November 2024.

A detective from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office reported interviewing the victim at a hospital on November 26, 2024. She informed him that a man had sexually assaulted her in her room at The Lodge at Meridian (4170 SW 13th Street) and suspected Mitchell played a role in it.

The victim recounted that Mitchell had sent her a text message, inquiring if she would be interested in meeting a friend of his. She refused, but soon after, someone knocked on her door. Upon opening it, she encountered an unfamiliar man. She said he entered her apartment, grabbed her by the waist, and she then lost consciousness. Her next memory was waking on the floor as the man was assaulting her. She recalled a second assault before the man departed.

The victim said that after the man left, Mitchell sent her another text message that said he had made $175 and that she did great. The deputy reported that the victim had deleted all of the text messages before going to the hospital.

Surveillance video from Meridian reportedly showed a man walking onto the property at 2:28 a.m. on November 26, knocking on the victim’s door, and entering. That person left the room at 3:07 a.m.

The same day, two detectives found Mitchell at a park (123 NW 10th Street) and asked him what had happened the previous night; they said he started talking about an incident with pizza, but when they said this was something with a woman, he asked if the detective was talking about the victim. When the detective asked about the text messages from his phone to the victim, Mitchell reportedly said someone named “Arrius” had taken his phone around 9 p.m. the previous evening. Mitchell reportedly gave the detective his phone number and consented to be searched, but no phone was found.

In late December, the detective received records from Mitchell’s phone from T-Mobile, and they showed two phone calls from the phone to the victim, at 12:12 a.m. and 12:16 a.m. Three more phone calls were made to the victim after the sexual battery, at 5:46:04 a.m. (not completed), 5:46:18 a.m. (a three-second call), and 5:46:44 a.m. (not completed).

On March 17, a laboratory report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed a DNA match between Arrius Irby and fluids found on the victim. Irby was arrested on April 25 for sexual battery.

The detective monitored phone calls Irby made from the jail and reported that at first, Irby did not know the name of the victim; on April 26, he reportedly said, “They are talking about this white girl we used to get high with” and “My dog put me on this white girl.”

In another phone call on April 26, Irby reportedly learned the victim’s name and said he did not know her; he then said, “My dog Roman… I’m gonna tell them cr***ers the truth… My dog Roman put me on with her.” When he was reminded that the call was being recorded, he reportedly said, “I only met her one time, and that was through my homeboy. I was just trying to stay the night and smoked out and that was it.”

On a phone call on April 27, Irby reportedly said the “girl” never knew his name and the only way law enforcement could have identified him was through Mitchell.

Mitchell has been charged with sexual battery. He has 14 misdemeanor convictions (non-violent). Prosecutors initially asked that he be held without bail but later withdrew the motion; however, bail has not been set.

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.