Ex-girlfriend in shock over Apollo Beach rape arrest

RUSKIN -- The ex-girlfriend of a Ruskin man charged with the robbery, kidnapping and rape of two Apollo Beach restaurant workers said today that she was shocked by his arrest.

Liliana Castillo, 18, of Ruskin, called her ex-boyfriend, Rigoberto Moron Martinez, a good man and father who always took care of his family. The two broke up Friday, the day before two female employees of The Docks restaurant were abducted and attacked.

"He was always worried about me and the baby," Castillo said, sitting on a couch in the apartment the two shared until recently at 1425 Zulia Court. Their son, 9-month-old Rigoberto Moron Martinez Jr., sat quietly on her lap.

Martinez walked across the U.S. border with his mother and brother about 11 years ago and had no  documentation, his former girlfriend said. He attended East Bay High School but dropped out in ninth grade to work as a welder. They met through Martinez's brother and lived together for four years, she said.

"My mom loved him. All my family loved him. They always said, 'You're never going to find a better man,' " Castillo said. 

Martinez would often work seven days in a row to make ends meet, Castillo said, adding that she didn't think he could be accused of robbery and rape.

"He never behaved like that. I can't imagine all that stuff," she said.

About eight months ago, they broke up because Martinez was cheating on her, Castillo said. One day, they argued about how soon she was going to pick up their son. He pushed her into a wall and threatened to take the baby, she said. They reconciled a few weeks later, and Castillo said he was never violent after that.

Things started going bad for Martinez, 20, when he lost his job four months ago, Castillo said. He then started hanging out with a group of guys she didn't know well -- troublemakers, she calls them -- and didn't particularly like. Normally a happy-go-lucky man, he got worried about not making any money, she said.

Still, she said, he had a patient, gentle side -- caring for their son and cooking meals while she worked as a nurse's aide at an assisted living facility in Sun City Center. He also liked to bake cakes and made her a chocolate cake a few days before they broke up last week.

She last saw him Monday, when he tearfully asked her to take him back. When a friend called to say the suspect being shown on television looked like her ex-boyfriend, she still didn't want to believe it. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, sheriff's deputies showed up looking for him. About 7 p.m., her phone rang. It was Martinez, telling her to take care of the baby and that he loved her.

"I asked him, 'Why, why, why did you do that?' He told me that he didn't do anything ... He was there but he didn't do anything," she said.

However, a sister of one of the victims told the Times today that her sibling said Martinez was definitely the leader of the three men who took part in the attack.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Martinez Wednesday night in Wimauma.

He is also charged in connection with two incidents earlier this summer in Gibsonton. On July 19, investigators say, he pulled a gun on a pair of 17-year-old girls walking on U.S. 41 at Elsberry Road, grabbed them by their necks and led them to a vacant parking lot. He is also charged with the July 3 rape and robbery of a 23-year-old woman at her home.

-- Chandra Broadwater and Saundra Amrhein, Times staff writers