March 22 (UPI) — Two North Carolina men visiting South Florida during this year’s chaotic spring break season have been charged with drugging and raping a woman who later died, police records showed Monday.
Evoire Collier, 21, and Dorian Taylor, 24, both of Greensboro, N.C., were also charged in Miami Beach, Fla., with stealing credit cards belonging to the victim, identified as 24-year-old woman visiting from Pennsylvania, according to a police report.
Police said Collier admitted he and Taylor had sex with the woman in a hotel room after she had been administered “a green pill” believed to be a powerful painkiller. She was later found dead on the room’s bed, the report said.
Collier and Taylor were arrested Sunday after using the woman’s credit cards at a Miami Beach liquor store, authorities said. Charges against the men could be upgraded to manslaughter or murder if it is determined the woman died as a result of an overdose.
The charges came as Miami Beach officials extended a curfew in an attempt to rein in massive and unruly crowds of partying spring breakers who have overwhelmed authorities’ ability to police behavior in the city’s South Beach area.
City Commissioners on Saturday issued an emergency curfew at popular South Beach entertainment spots, quickly followed by enforcement actions in which police SWAT teams used pepper balls to break up throngs of partiers.
On Sunday, officials extended the Thursday-through-Sunday 8 p.m. curfew to April 12 — the official end of the spring break season. Under the declaration, popular causeways used by pedestrians will be closed to all but city residents, hotel guests and business employees.
Miami Beach Interim City Manager Raul Aguila said more than 1,000 arrests have been made since February, including 350 on felony charges, and more than 80 firearms seized.
