Collier County man accused of exposing himself in a parking lot to a teen

A 38-year-old Ave Maria man was arrested Thursday after deputies say he exposed his genitals to a woman and a teenager during separate incidents in the parking lot of a popular shopping plaza.

Marlon Nnardi Williams is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior and indecent exposure in connection with incidents that occurred in July and May at Tarpon Bay Plaza, 2433 Immokalee Road.

“Crime is everywhere,” Yenny Neal said. “Really you can’t look at a neighborhood, and say, ‘That’s a nice area. It doesn’t happen there.’ Because criminals do not discriminate at a location.”

On July 13, a teenage girl told detectives that she was waiting in the car while her mother shopped in a store when a gray BMW pulled up next to her. The driver, whom she did not know, was nude from the waist down. The man moved erratically around the vehicle exposing his genitals to the girl.

The mother returned to the car. As the girl was telling her mother what had happened, the man drove away. The victim and her mother followed him around the parking lot and got pictures of the car and license plate which they gave to detectives.

“It’s just disturbing,” Maria Garcia said. “I have a 15-year-old niece, so I can only imagine some incident like that happening to her.”

But the key to catching Williams was the mother and daughter following him and taking a picture of his license plate.

“In this case, clearly, the license plate was a good clue for the law enforcement to follow up on,” said Rich Kolko, WINK News Safety & Security Specialist.

Kolko says the women did the right thing.

“You’ve got to be careful and aware of your surroundings before you take actions,” Kolko said. “Police don’t necessarily want you to intervene, but they do want you to be a good witness. In this case, taking a picture made these folks an excellent witness.”

Detectives searched motor vehicle records and found the suspect BMW was registered to Williams.

Further investigation by detectives turned up a similar incident May 27 involving Williams at the same shopping plaza. The victim, an adult female, said she was sitting inside her vehicle when a gray BMW pulled up next to her. The driver climbed in the back seat and she could see he was not wearing pants. He leaned forward into the front seat area and she could see his exposed penis. As he drove away she got the license plate number which she provided to deputies.

At the time the victim told detectives she did not want to pursue charges. Detectives made contact with her again following the incident with the teen and she said she now wanted to pursue charges.

“To think someone is walking and driving around shopping malls and plazas and exposing themselves, it’s shocking,” Garcia said.

Both victims identified Williams from photo lineups as the man who exposed himself to them.

On Thursday, detectives located Williams at his residence and placed him under arrest.

“Good thing we have these phones,” Neal said. “Sometimes they weigh you down because your accessible everywhere you go, but also thanks to those phones, we’re catching people like that and making everybody aware of it.”