Esther Torres (Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center).
A Florida woman has been sentenced for allegedly luring men to hotel rooms, pepper-spraying them, and stealing their luxury timepieces.
Esther Torres, 20, was originally arrested on two counts of robbery in the first degree, according to the Miami Beach Police Department.
In late March, two significant incidents unfolded. The case related to these incidents concluded earlier this week, with a plea agreement reached for charges of armed robbery, burglary, and third-degree grand theft.
The first incident took place at the Breakwater Hotel. A victim was subjected to pepper spray before having his Hugo Boss watch forcefully removed from his wrist. The perpetrator also seized over $200 in both cash and Euros, as well as several credit cards, according to police reports.
The second incident occurred at the Fontainebleau Hotel. There, a man was also pepper-sprayed, and his attacker escaped with a $22,000 Rolex Submariner, as reported by the police department.
During that second incident, the man claimed to have been rendered temporarily blind by his attacker”s use of the chemical weapon.
In each instance, police said Torres was seen on surveillance footage leaving the hotels after the men were relieved of their watches.
“We have a predator, and she’s preying on male victims,” Mitch Novick, the owner of the Sherbrooke Hotel, told Miami-based Fox affiliate WSVN in an interview this week.
Investigators contacted Novick to ask for his help with surveillance footage – which the hotelier was more than happy to supply.
During someone else’s traffic stop in April, Torres arrived on the scene after the man driving was arrested. The defendant was identified by her driver’s license, police told Miami-based ABC affiliate WPLG. She was called to come pick up the vehicle – but police took notes.
In May, she was arrested after police confirmed her identity based on an image from a “need to identify” flyer issued by law enforcement.
Initially, Torres was ordered to be detained without bond.
Police later released body-worn camera footage of the arrest – in which a child is heard shouting off-screen. Police said Torres had a child in her car at the time of the arrest.
“You have no weapons on you, none of that stuff, right?” an officer asks in the brief clip.
To which Torres replied: “No, no.”
The defendant is no longer in the jail system – after being granted a recognizance bond in late June, court records show.
She was sentenced to five years probation on Wednesday.
