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TAMPA — Stefani Hernandez was walking her two Weimaraners outside her apartment complex near International Plaza when she got a weird feeling, like someone was behind her.
"I turned around," the 26-year-old remembers, "and there he was, inches from me." He told her she had nice dogs.
Qingnong Xiao, 48, is an associate professor at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, earning $108,344 a year. He is a hurricane expert with publications in scientific journals.
Hernandez didn't know any of that. She didn't know him. But she knew he made her nervous.
So she went inside her complex.
He followed.
"Do you have somewhere you have to be?" she asked him. She wonders why those particular words came out of her mouth. She wonders if she should have yelled, or run. But she was frozen, scared.
He responded, "No."
She didn't want to go into her own apartment. So she began to knock on a neighbor's door. That's when one of her dogs started to run down the opposite hallway.
She turned toward her dog.
Then, it happened: She felt his hands on her sweater, pulling her backward, toward the complex's exterior door.
He turned for a moment and took one hand off her shoulders.
She pulled away from him, ran into her apartment and called 911.
Police saw Xiao driving the van Hernandez described and stopped him on Spruce Street at Dale Mabry Highway.
What Xiao told them is contained in a Tampa police report:
He was in the area, looking for a bar or club to have a good time.
He was online earlier, and found a woman named Summer, who was with an escort service. He called the woman, he said, and she led him to the apartment complex, on 2021 N Le Mans Blvd.
Xiao said he'd received several calls from the woman, who was supposed to meet him there.
But on his cell phone, police found only calls to and from his home.
Xiao said he saw a woman walking two large dogs, but he didn't remember who started the conversation. He told police he never touched or grabbed her and said there must have been a misunderstanding.
The police asked why he had blankets laid out in the back of his van.
Xiao said they were there for store purchases but wouldn't elaborate.
That all happened May 7, 2010.
Xiao didn't physically hurt Hernandez, but the experience rattled her. "I feel like he was eventually going to take me to his car and hoping something would happen," she said.
She told her employer, a retail company, she was willing to work anywhere. She moved out of the apartment and out of Florida.
But she traveled back to Tampa to face Xiao this week at his criminal trial.
He sat rows in front of her in a Hillsborough courtroom. "My stomach was going crazy," she said. "I got really nervous." But she testified. And a Hillsborough jury found Xiao guilty of battery and burglary.
Xiao remained employed by USF after his arrest. He worked at the graduate school doing research, university spokeswoman Lara Wade said. School officials were aware he faced charges but were waiting for the outcome of the case. This week, Wade said, they will decide how to proceed.
Xiao, who is not tenured, was hired in August 2009. He came to the university from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., where he was a project scientist.
After his trial concluded Tuesday, he was released on $5,000 bail. Calls to Xiao and his lawyer were not returned.
Xiao will be sentenced Aug. 8.
Hernandez will be there.
Staff writer Kim Wilmath and news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.
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