A Homestead man is facing felony sexual battery and video voyeurism charges after a Miami-Dade County woman told police she discovered videos of herself being assaulted while scrolling through party photos on her own iPhone. Samuel De Leon-Chan was arrested Monday night at his Homestead home and booked into custody early Tuesday, accused of raping the woman while she was unconscious after a party at her house and secretly recording it.
According to Local 10 News, the woman had hosted the party at her Miami-Dade County home and allowed De Leon-Chan to sleep it off on her living room couch afterward. She was heavily intoxicated by the time she went to sleep herself, according to the outlet. Days later, while looking back through photos from the gathering, she says she came across videos and photos documenting the sexual battery — footage she had never taken herself.
An Identical Phone Left Behind the Evidence
Investigators say the discovery traces back to a case of mistaken devices. The woman and De Leon-Chan reportedly owned identical black iPhones, and according to the warrant, he apparently grabbed the wrong one — her iPhone 16 Pro — when he recorded the material, leaving the footage on her device instead of his own. That mix-up, per the warrant cited by the station's report, became the evidentiary thread linking him to the alleged crime, since digital forensic recovery of timestamps and file metadata is typically central to prosecuting these kinds of cases when there are no eyewitnesses.
An arrest warrant for De Leon-Chan was issued on August 10, the same report notes. He faces one count of sexual battery on a physically helpless victim and one count of video or digital voyeurism by a person 19 years of age or older. Under Florida law, a person is considered “physically helpless” if they are unconscious, asleep, or otherwise unable to communicate unwillingness — a standard that does not require the victim to have physically resisted in order to prove the crime occurred.
Felony Charges Carry Decades of Potential Prison Time
Sexual battery on a physically helpless victim is classified as a first-degree felony in Florida, carrying a potential sentence of up to 30 years in state prison. The video voyeurism charge is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years behind bars and a $5,000 fine for an adult offender. A conviction on the sexual battery count would also require De Leon-Chan to register as a sexual offender with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for life.
De Leon-Chan, who was born in Miami-Dade County, was arrested at his home in Homestead — a suburban and agricultural city roughly 30 to 35 miles southwest of Downtown Miami. He was booked Tuesday morning by Miami-Dade Corrections at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, the county's main 24-hour intake and booking facility located at 7000 NW 41st Street in Miami.
Alleged Plan to Flee to Mexico Could Shape Bond Decision
Court records cited by the station indicate De Leon-Chan told a friend he intended to travel to Mexico to avoid prosecution. Under Florida's rules of criminal procedure, judges weighing bond and pretrial release must consider evidence pointing to a defendant's intent to flee the jurisdiction, meaning that alleged statement could weigh heavily when a judge decides whether to grant bond or impose stricter conditions.
The case adds to a string of recent sexual battery arrests across Miami-Dade County tied to victims who were asleep or intoxicated. In June, North Miami Beach police arrested a 53-year-old man after his wife said she caught him assaulting a sleeping houseguest on their living room couch. Earlier this month, a separate case saw a Miami Beach man arrested after allegedly holding a woman down on the sand and telling investigators her objections were not genuine.
It remains unclear whether formal charges against De Leon-Chan will match the counts listed in the arrest warrant, or what bond conditions a judge will ultimately impose as the case moves through Miami-Dade's Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court. How defense attorneys might challenge the digital chain of custody surrounding the recovered phone footage is also an open question at this early stage.
