POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced the arrest of a 24-year-old man accused of breaking into a Mulberry home early Saturday morning and violently assaulting a 77-year-old woman.
Judd said Axel Antonio Espinal Herrera was taken into custody after detectives tracked him to a nearby residence shortly after the attack, calling the incident “one of the most horrific crimes we’ve seen in this county in a very long time.”
According to the sheriff, the victim was asleep in her bed around 4 a.m. on Aug. 29 when she woke up to a noise and saw a silhouette in her home. Judd said the intruder pounced on the woman in her bedroom, forcibly stripped off her clothing, and carried out a violent sexual assault…