Sex Offender Accused Of Trying To Infect Ex With HIV

GRAYSLAKE, IL – A Florida woman says a Grayslake man with whom she started an online relationship failed to tell her he had H.I.V. when their relationship turned romantic. Now she wants to warn other Lake County women who may have been sexually involved with Rondan Keith, 43.

Keith has been charged in Florida for having sex with a person and failing to notify them of his HIV status, according to authorities in Cape Coral, Florida.

Nicole Fiumara told the Daily Herald she started an online relationship with Keith, who is from Grayslake and lived for at time in Des Plaines and Park Ridge, in April 2015. Fiumara, a former sheriff's office employee who worked in investigations, said she "Googled" him and checked his Facebook page for red flags. After nothing turned up, Keith flew to Florida so the two could meet.

In a car ride home from the airport, he told Fiumara he was a sex offender who had not registered as such for several years, according to the Daily Herald. He said he was charged in Illinois for having sex with a 16-year-old he thought was an adult. Fiumara believed him. When police arrested Keith for failing to register as a sex offender, Fiumara paid his bail.

Things then went quickly downhill, according to the Daily Herald. She ended the relationship and changed the locks on her doors.

On Thanksgiving 2016, she received this text message: "If I can't have you, no man will want you. Welcome to the club of HIV, that is your demise," Keith texted her, explaining how he carried the virus associated with AIDS. "Now live with it. I hate you, die in your own (obscenity) misery alone … I can watch you suffer and every day you will always know who gave you HIV."

Fiumara has been tested several times for H.I.V. and was assured she does not have the disease, according to the Daily Herald.

Keith was arrested in December by Cape Coral police for knowingly having sex with a person and failing to notify them of his H.I.V. status, according to a news release. Detectives launched an investigation into him in February 2016 when a victim contacted them to report Keith, who was an ex-boyfriend, was in jail for stalking and texting that he had HIV. The victim added that he intentionally had unprotected sex so the victim would become infected.

Detectives interviewed Keith at the Lee County Jail in Florida and learned he had been incarcerated from 1999 through 2002 in Illinois. Authorities subpoenaed his medical records,w which showed he was being treated for HIV during his prison stint in Illinois.

Keith remains in prison, according to his sex offender registry profile. At the time they sent out the press release in late December, authorities in Florida warned the community they were concerned there might be other victims in the community and wanted to speak with them.

In Lake County, Keith was arrested on a warrant by Grayslake police in 2014 for unlawfully residing in the proximity of a school as a predatory child sex offender, according to authorities. In 2012, Keith was arrested in Crystal Lake Oct. 2 on a warrant for failure to register as a sex offender.

Those who believe they have been victimized by Keith can call Cape Coral police at (239) 242-3717 or local authorities.

More via the Daily Herald

Photo via Cape Coral Police Department