Third stalking charge filed against man

Another woman has reported being stalked by a 54-year-old Marathon man recently arrested for harassing another adult woman as well as a teen girl.

Julio Roberto Melendez Chavez was charged with stalking again on Tuesday. He is now charged with three counts of stalking in three separate incidents. He has also been charged with battery and interfering with the custody of a minor regarding the incident with the 16-year-old girl.

On Monday, a Marathon woman contacted the Sheriff’s Office after she saw a picture of Chavez on the Sheriff’s Office website mugshot/arrest page. The woman recognized Chavez as the man who had been stalking her. The woman told Sheriff’s Office investigators that her first interaction with Chavez occurred in August. She was riding her bike when a man in a pickup truck, later identified as Chavez, began following her and beeping his horn at her. He followed her into the Marathon Publix and told her how pretty she was. The woman exited the store and Chavez was still there. He asked her to get into his pickup truck. She declined and feared for her safety. For the next two months, Chavez parked his truck along the route the woman took as she rode her bike to work. Her husband confronted Chavez, but the woman remained in fear and quit riding her bike altogether.

Chavez remains in jail. The incident reported by the woman Monday was very similar to accounts given by another other adult woman and teenage girl — Chavez followed them too and asked also them to get in his truck. In all three cases, all the victims declined and contacted law enforcement.

Regarding the incident involving the minor: Chavez grabbed her while she was watching a soccer game at Marathon Community Park on Nov. 15. He kissed the girl on neck and grabbed her rear-end prior to the girl getting away and getting a ride home with friends. The girl reported the incident to a Sheriff’s Office deputy at school the next day. The girl took Chavez’s phone number and detectives used it to identify him.

The two adult women took down his license plate number and detectives used that information as well in identifying Chavez.

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