Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Richard William Blackwelder, 45, is facing a sexual battery charge after police said he allegedly raped a homeless woman in Gainesville.
According to the responding Gainesville Police Department officer, the victim is a homeless woman who routinely sleeps in the same abandoned building. She told police she knew Blackwelder only as a friend of her boyfriend and said she had never been romantically involved with him. However, she said Blackwelder knew where she slept.
The woman told the officer she was alone during the night of June 17 or the early morning hours of June 18, 2025, when she woke up and realized her pants had been pulled halfway down. When she looked up, she said, Blackwelder was standing over her completely naked with his genitals exposed. She immediately confronted him and asked what he was doing, but police said Blackwelder did not respond. Instead, he reportedly grabbed his clothing, pillow, and blanket and quickly walked away.
The victim later reported the incident, and a sexual assault examination kit was completed at Shands.
Investigators received the results in October 2025, and the findings reportedly showed DNA from the victim and at least one male.
About a week after those results came back, a deputy went to the Alachua County Jail, where Blackwelder was already being held in an unrelated case, and interviewed him.
After being read his Miranda rights, Blackwelder reportedly said he had met the victim through her boyfriend. He strongly denied ever having sex with her and said he did not know why she would make the accusation.
In November 2025, deputies learned that the male DNA from the sexual assault kit matched Blackwelder’s sample, which “directly contradicts [Blackwelder’s] statement that he never had [or] attempted to have sex with the [victim].”
A warrant for Blackwelder’s arrest was issued in April 2026, and he was arrested on June 1, 2026, in Temple Terrace, Florida, after allegedly giving a false name to a Temple Terrace Police Department officer during a consensual encounter.
Blackwelder has been charged with sexual battery. He has seven felony convictions and three misdemeanor convictions; he has served one state prison sentence and was released in 2002. He also has an unspecified out-of-state history. On August 28, Judge Susanne Wilson Bullard granted a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial.
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.
