Ernide Montejo Kindelan

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With 38 potential jurors lined up outside the courtroom, a 36-year-old East Naples man sobbed uncontrollably Thursday morning, wavering over whether he should plead to a sexual battery charge involving an attack with a barbecue fork.

"I have made an effort because I know that I am not guilty," Ernide Montejo Kindelaw told Collier Circuit Judge Elizabeth Krier through an interpreter as he cried and was consoled by Assistant Public Defender Shannon Brown.

At one point during the nearly 1 1/2-hour proceeding, Montejo covered his face with his hands, breaking down sobbing and falling to the floor as four bailiffs tried to lift him up. His sobs were so loud they could be heard through two courtroom doors in the hallway, where jurors waited.

Brown repeatedly told him he wasn’t pleading guilty, just no contest and wasn’t admitting he did it — and it was in his best interests because he faced life in prison.

"I want to appeal because I am not satisfied," said Montejo, who was dressed in a suit provided by the Public Defender’s Office that was slightly larger than his 5-foot-7-inch frame.

Finally, faced with a 30-year-old victim ready to take the stand and her emotional 911 call, which would be heard by a jury, Montejo agreed to the plea bargain for 15 years in a state prison so he could avoid life in prison with a minimum mandatory 25-year term. He pleaded no contest to sexual battery with a threat of force, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Krier asked whether he wanted to serve 10 years of sexual-offender probation or 15 years with the possibility of termination after half. A crying Montejo chose 10 years, a decade after his release from prison that will be spent with an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts and numerous other restrictions such as not being allowed to use the Internet. Krier also branded him a sexual predator, meaning his name will be listed in a statewide database.

She gave him credit for time served in the county jail since his arrest on Feb. 24, 2007.

The victim, who had agreed to the plea deal, left with Victim Advocate Betty Ardaya and declined comment. Due to the sexual nature of the charges, her name is not being published, but she knew Montejo. There was no DNA evidence involved in the case.

Both Brown and Klink said that whether Montejo had a relationship with the woman was in dispute, but Klink’s most powerful weapon at trial would have been the 911 tape.

"That was the strongest piece of evidence because the victim was brave enough to pick up the phone and make the call during part of the attack," Klink said.

Arrest reports say that at 12:39 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2007, Collier County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call, a possible fight in progress. The woman, then 29, had called 911 during the fight and left the phone line open so dispatchers could hear her screaming as she was attacked.

"Help me, help me," she yelled as dispatchers heard a man yelling in Spanish in the background as the attack took place.

Reports provide this account:

Deputies arrived and heard screaming inside and tried to get in. Once they were allowed inside, they saw Montejo, who had scratches on his eye, and the woman, who had been crying and had a red left eye that was beginning to swell.

She said Montejo had fought with her, accusing her of cheating, and she shut the bathroom door, but he forced his way inside and pushed her and kicked her head. During the struggle, a towel rack was ripped from the wall. After he stopped hitting her, he told her he was going to kill her, demanded sex and came at her with a large two-prong barbecue fork.

He told her he was going to have sex with her whether she liked it or not. Fearing for her life, she said she’d do anything. He forced her to perform oral sex on him. As she did that, she urged him to put down the barbecue fork, but that prompted him to tell her to stop because he was "just going to kill her."

Moments earlier, she’d secretly called 911 and left the phone on the bed as she screamed for help. When deputies arrived, she said, Montejo wouldn’t let her open the door and shoved her into a dog cage. She ran to the back door to let deputies inside.

She had bruises on her breasts and scratches on her left shoulder and the top of her bruised right thigh. She told emergency workers her head ached because she’d been kicked repeatedly. She was taken to Physicians Regional to check for a concussion, while Montejo was arrested and taken to the county jail, where he has been ever since.