Police: Woman was jabbed with syringe before being sexually assaulted in Apopka

APOPKA, Fla. — Investigators said they believe a man who a woman reported for stealing her purse later drugged and sexually assaulted her.

That woman told police the man jabbed her with a syringe before she blacked out in the woods, authorities said.

John Dillon Belluso was arrested and remains in the Orange County Jail, police said.

Police said Belluso stole a woman's purse then drugged her and sexually assaulted her months later because she reported the theft.

Belluso faced a judge Thursday.

Records said a woman in May stopped at an Apopka RaceTrac gas station and after pumping gas, she went inside for a few minutes, leaving her car doors unlocked. When she came back out, she noticed her purse had been stolen, she said.

Witnesses told police Belluso was panhandling at the store around that time, officials said.

Police said Belluso was later caught on surveillance video at a Wells Fargo bank, where he used the victim's bank cards.

Investigators said the victim and the suspect knew one another.

Three months after the alleged theft, the victim said she was in a wooded area not far from the RaceTrac.

It was in the woods where the woman said Belluso approached her and accused her of "identifying him in a burglary."

The woman said Belluso then pulled out a "syringe with an off-white substance" in it and jabbed her right hand, officials said.

When the woman woke up, she said she realized she had been sexually assaulted, investigators said. She reported it to a local pastor who called police.

Cox Media Group