A 37-year-old Florida man wanted on a sexual battery charge connected to the alleged abuse of a 9-year-old girl was arrested Wednesday evening at a motel in Dunbar, West Virginia. Alexander Kyle Nichols, of Bradenton, Florida, was taken into custody around 5 p.m. at the Red Roof Inn, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, after fleeing his home state to evade law enforcement.
Nichols was wanted out of Sarasota County, Florida, on the sexual battery charge tied to the alleged abuse of the child, per the U.S. Marshals Service. As reported by WBOY.com, he was also wanted for a court-ordered violation of a drug program. Marshals say he allegedly left Florida to avoid arrest and was believed to be traveling under an alias when investigators caught up with him.
The arrest came together after the Southern District of West Virginia's CUFFED Task Force received intelligence from the Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force indicating Nichols had fled the state and was using a false identity, according to a U.S. Marshals Service news release. That cross-state tip is what ultimately led agents to the Dunbar motel room.
A Familiar Pattern at Dunbar Motels
This isn't the first time a Florida fugitive has turned up hiding at a Dunbar motel. Just weeks earlier, the same CUFFED Task Force and Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force worked together to arrest Matthew Allen Waggle, a 33-year-old Florida murder suspect, at a different Dunbar motel following an interstate manhunt, the U.S. Marshals Service reported in an earlier release.
Nichols was arraigned in Kanawha County Magistrate Court and is now being held at South Central Regional Jail while he awaits extradition back to Florida. Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Waggamon said Nichols fled to West Virginia specifically to evade apprehension from Florida law enforcement.
Arrest Follows Major Regional Sex Offender Crackdown
Nichols' capture landed just days after the U.S. Marshals Service and West Virginia State Police wrapped up Operation Coal Country, a multi-week enforcement push running from August 13 through September 1 that resulted in 59 felony arrests across southern West Virginia, including 26 sex offenders or people wanted for sex crimes, according to the same U.S. Marshals Service account. As part of that operation, state troopers conducted 383 sex offender compliance checks, turning up 51 noncompliant offenders and securing 72 arrest warrants.
The effort builds on an earlier sweep, Operation Spring Sweep, which ran from March 9 to April 4 and led to 72 felony arrests in Kanawha and Putnam counties, 31 of them involving sex offenders or people charged with sex crimes, per the U.S. Marshals Service. Waggamon said law enforcement will continue pursuing the individuals targeted in the operation.
Who Runs the CUFFED Task Force
The Charleston-based CUFFED Task Force — short for Cops United Felony Fugitive Enforcement Division — is a permanent interagency unit pairing the U.S. Marshals Service with ten local and state partner agencies, including the West Virginia State Police and the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, according to agency records. It now operates under newly sworn U.S. Marshal Jack C. Chambers, who took over the Southern District of West Virginia on August 25 after previously serving as Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police, per the agency's own records.
Nationally, Marshals-led fugitive task forces arrested more than 73,000 federal, state, and local fugitives and cleared nearly 88,000 warrants in 2025, the U.S. Marshals Service reported. Nichols' case adds to that tally as one small but serious piece of a much larger enforcement machine.
What Comes Next
Under Florida Statute § 794.011, sexual battery committed by an adult against a child under 12 is classified as a capital felony, punishable by life imprisonment without parole or death upon conviction, according to Online Sunshine, the Florida Legislature's official statutes portal. Extraditing Nichols back to Florida will require a formal written demand from Florida's governor to West Virginia's governor, along with authenticated copies of the underlying arrest warrant, per Florida's Uniform Criminal Extradition Act under Chapter 941 of the state's statutes.
It remains unclear whether Nichols will contest or waive his extradition hearing in Kanawha County Magistrate Court, and details about his alleged alias and flight path from Florida have not been made public. As with any pending criminal matter, the allegations against Nichols remain unproven accusations unless and until they are adjudicated in court.
