HOBE SOUND, Fla. — A man was arrested Friday after he punched a 17-year-old Hobe Sound in the face several times after breaking into her house, deputies said.
The suspect, Antonio Amaya-Guevara, 42, was later taken into custody in Palm Beach County.
"She's a quiet girl. She waves to me here and there," neighbor Germaine Patterson said.
He said the victim was his friend's daughter.
"I asked him what happened, and he told me somebody broke into his house and put his hands on his daughter," Patterson said.
The Martin County Sheriff's Office said at about 2 p.m. Amaya-Guevara broke in through a back door while the teen was home alone.
Deputies said she heard noises and thought her dad had hired a maintenance man.
It wasn't until she FaceTimed her dad that she realized what was happening.
"She is still on FaceTime with dad, snapping screenshots of the suspect as the suspect is leaving," Martin County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy John Budensiek said. "At some point, the suspect became more and more agitated."
Deputies said she followed him down the road and that's when investigators said he attacked her and took off.
"He came back and punched her at least three times and snatched her cellphone out of her hands," Budensiek said. "That started the fight that led to the 911 call."
She was taken to the Jupiter Medical Center with minor bruises and abrasions on her face and was released.
WPTV spoke with a person who was at the teen's house and said that the teen was doing OK.
Budensiek credits the teen for taking the pictures and giving information to the deputies about Amaya-Guevara and the car he was driving.
"Have we been seeing a string of burglaries? Do we feel like they're connected?" WPTV reporter Joel Lopez asked.
"We don't know. We had a similar type of burglary about a mile from that location about three months or so ago. So we're not positive it's the same person but there are some similarities," Budensiek said. "This is not normal for our area so this is alarming to us."
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives arrested him with the help of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Department of Homeland Security.
"Sitting at home now knowing that this happened how are you feeling?" Lopez asked.
"That's scary. I'm glad I have a dog outside ... to alert me," neighbor Josellin Gonzalez said. "That's very sad. The fact that she had to defend herself is very sad."
Deputies said Amaya-Guevara is from Honduras and reentered the United States illegally in 2023.
He is being charged with occupied burglary, battery robbery by sudden snatching and child abuse.
His bond will be set at $800,000, and he will have an immigration detainer.
