Man accused of trying to kidnap teen outside her Homestead home staying behind bars

A 43-year-old man arrested for allegedly trying to kidnap a 13-year-old girl right outside her house in Homestead will remain behind bars while he awaits trial.

A Miami-Dade judge made the decision Wednesday during a pre-trial detention hearing for Michael Luprecio.

Luprecio was arrested on March 8 and is facing battery and attempted kidnapping charges.

Police say the victim was walking her dog in front of her home along Southwest 4th Street when a dark gray Chevrolet Tahoe pulled into her driveway.

The driver got out of the vehicle, opened the hood and began looking underneath the bay of the hood, according to an arrest report.

The victim then walked past the vehicle to get back to her home, when the man lunged at her and grabbed her, attempting to pull her closer to his vehicle, police said.

"All of a sudden he tried to grab me like really hard," Candice Ramirez said.

Ramirez says she screamed and was able to break away from the man, later identified as Luprecio.

"I pushed him. I screamed at him and pushed him and told him, what’s your problem," Ramirez said.

Luprecio got back into the vehicle and drove off after Ramirez ran back into her home to call 911.

She said she was so rattled, she struggled to tell her mom.

"I was stuttering," Ramirez said. "I couldn’t tell her anything because I was so scared."

Homestead Police were able to track down Luprecio's 2011 Tahoe, and saw him get into the vehicle before conducting a traffic stop along Northwest 8th Street.

Luprecio told officers that he stopped in the driveway of the victim's home to check a noise coming from his engine, and claimed that the teen was just startled when he aggressively closed the vehicle's hood.

Luprecio admitted he touched the girl but only to calm her down.

He was arrested and taken to the Homestead Police Department, before being transported to TGK.

"After that happened, I couldn’t think of anything," Ramirez said. "I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t even have motivation to go to school anymore."

The judge Wednesday said Luprecio could be a danger to the community and ordered him held while he awaits trial.

But his attorneys argued for his release on bond, saying he has stage 2 gastric cancer and has surgery scheduled for April.