Nantucket Rape Suspect Indicted After Allegedly Fleeing To Georgia

Manuel Antonio Figueroa Vega, 30, a Nantucket resident, was arraigned Wednesday morning on two charges of aggravated rape of a child (five-year age difference) in Nantucket Superior Court and was held on $100,000 bail.

Vega is accused of repeatedly raping a seven-year-old girl on Nantucket, and the two charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred on July 23 and July 25. He had not-guilty pleas entered on his behalf and was ordered to be held in custody at the Barnstable House of Corrections. Vega has been incarcerated there since September 4th after Nantucket District Court Judge James M. Sullivan set his bail at $100,000 cash, $1,000,000 surety following the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s office requesting both figures during his original district court arraignment.

Wednesday’s arraignment and bail hearing was held in front of Nantucket Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea. Cape & Islands assistant district attorney Michael Preble requested Vega continue to be held on $100,000 cash bail, $1,000,000 surety – arguing that Vega is a major flight risk after revealing the suspect had fled to Georgia in the days following the alleged incidents while the Nantucket Police Department was conducting its investigation.

“Vega was apprehended by authorities in Georgia and ultimately transported here,” Preble said. “Although these are the only criminal charges the defendant has pending in Massachusetts, the reason for the commonwealth’s request for bail is the alleged flight after traveling hundreds of miles away. Commonwealth would suggest based on his past conduct, he is a flight risk and that if he is able to post bail, may very well flee the state or the country.”

Preble added that Vega is alleged to have repeatedly sexually assaulted the victim over the course of the past year. Preble said if Vega were to meet the $100,000 cash bail, prosecutors would request several conditions including a stay-away and no-contact order with the alleged victim and witnesses, be fitted for a GPS monitoring device, home confinement and curfew, and to surrender any and all passports he may have to ensure he can’t leave the country since he is not originally from the United States. All of Preble’s requests were granted by Judge Gildea.

According to the police report, officers responded to Nantucket Cottage Hospital on July 25, 2024, following the report of a seven-year-old girl being brought to the emergency room by her mother to be treated for a sexual assault.

Police entered the emergency room, and the alleged victim told police that Vega had sexually assaulted her. The girl told police that Vega engaged in sexual intercourse with her, as well as other sex acts. The incidents, which the alleged victim said took place on July 23 and July 25, took place on her bed.

The alleged victim also disclosed during a forensic interview that the sexual assaults took place on July 23 and July 25.

According to court records, a complaint was issued on August 5 along with an arrest warrant. The warrant was recalled on September 3^rd after Vega was apprehended by law enforcement officers in Georgia, extradited back to Massachusetts, and brought into Barnstable District Court the next day where Sullivan also presides as a judge.

Vega’s attorney, Amit Singh, requested bail be set at $10,000 with any conditions the court deem necessary. He told the court that Vega left for Boston looking for work July 26, the day after the alleged victim was brought to the hospital. Singh said his client later went to Georgia to see his brother in the following days “to get a job.” He admitted that leaving for Georgia is “troubling” and that had his client not done that, he would have requested he be released on personal recognizance with no bail. He said his family "scrapped money together" to pay for private legal representation, and that Vega has less than $400 in his bank account. He added that if bail were set at $10,000, Vega may be able to post it within a couple months if he could get a job and be allowed to work.

Singh claimed that when the alleged victim was checked by a nurse at the Nantucket Cottage Hospital, the nurse allegedly said there was no evidence of sexual assault “recent or prior.” He said the hospital visit took place after the seven-year-old approached her mom and told her Vega had sexually assaulted her – just two days after reporting the first incident to her mom. Singh said the incidents did not happen and claims the girl allegedly admitted to making the story up because she was jealous that Vega was sleeping in her mom’s bed ever since he came into their lives two years ago.

Singh also suggested there was no allegation of repeated sexual assaults, and that there were only two alleged incidents – suggesting that the claim made by Preble that these sexual assaults occurred repeatedly over the course of the past year was an exaggeration.

Preble responded by pointing to page 22 of the grand jury minutes in which it was documented that the mother told the grand jury under oath that her daughter said she was sexually assaulted multiple times and when she was asked whether the girl said it happened one time or more than one time, the mother answered “she said it happens all the time."

Preble also addressed Singh’s argument that Vega left the island and eventually the country searching for work by revealing that Vega’s former employer said he fled so abruptly and so fast that they had paychecks for him for work he had performed but had “no idea where he was” and couldn’t deliver them to him. When Gildea asked Singh why his client fled searching for work when he had paychecks waiting for him and a job on the island already, Singh said that the employer wasn’t actually paying him.

“Summer is ending and that happens to a lot of seasonal workers,” Singh said.

Preble said the mother has since become “less than cooperative” with prosecutors as they continue to work this case. A pretrial date was scheduled for November 18^th and a trial date was scheduled for May 6, 2025.