KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Osceola County deputies have arrested an Uber driver accused of raping a 14-year-old girl Monday.
Deputies said the girl was picked up by David Pena-Melo, 27, after she used the Uber application to request a ride to take her from her boyfriend's house to her aunt's house on Monday around 3 a.m. Both addresses are in Kissimmee.
The victim sat in the backseat and Pena-Melo began telling her she was pretty and asking her personal questions about where she goes to school, her age and if she had a boyfriend, according to the arrest report.
The girl avoided the questions and instead texted her boyfriend. While at an intersection, Pena-Melo told the girl to move to the front seat, which she did. Deputies said Pena-Melo sexually battered the girl. She told him to stop several times but he was "forceful and persistent," according to the affidavit.
Pena-Melo then drove the girl past her requested destination and parked near a wooded area, where deputies said he forced her to perform a sexual act. He then drove her to her requested address.
Deputies said they received the report of the sexual battery Wednesday. The victim provided deputies with a description of Pena-Melo and his Toyota Camry as well as the license plate number.
Authorities used that license plate number to track the car to an apartment on Bonita Circle in Kissimmee.
The suspect's wife originally told deputies Pena-Melo was in Boston caring for his sick mother, but when deputies told her that they were investigating a crime that occurred in her car, she became "extremely cooperative" and gave them consent to search the vehicle, the report said.
Pena-Melo's wife knew her husband was at an apartment in Kissimmee, so she led deputies to that location then called Pena-Melo so he would come outside.
Pena-Melo immediately started making spontaneously admissions when he saw the deputies, the report said.
"This is about the girl I picked up from her boyfriend's house the other day. I knew it. I knew it. She told me she was 18," Pena-Melo said, according to deputies.
Deputies stopped him from speaking any further until they could get him to the sheriff's office for an interview.
Pena-Melo admitted to the sexual activity during the interview, again claiming that he thought the victim was at least 18 years old.
Pena-Melo was booked into the Osceola County Jail on Thursday on a sexual battery charge. He's being held without bond.