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(Editor's Note: In an earlier version of this article, the Daily News incorrectly reported the age of the alleged victim and facts surrounding the allegations based on inaccurate information provided by the Collier County Sheriff's Office. This updated version includes the accurate age and facts. The Daily News regrets the error.)

A 26-year-old man who had faced life in prison on charges raping a 24-year-old woman has been freed in the case after the witnesses didn’t show up for his trial this week.

Manuel Gallardo, 26, who had resided on Coral Palms Lane in Naples, was charged with capital sexual battery.

However, Assistant State Attorney Deborah Schwartz declined to prosecute the case, which was set for trial this week, because the witnesses couldn’t be located.

Charges were dismissed in open court before Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker.

Gallardo was arrested Sept. 18 and spent about two months in jail before his bail was reduced to $50,000 and he posted bond after defense attorney Rexford Darrow proved the Mexican man was in this country legally. Records show he is a lawn maintenance worker who also has used the name Manuel Gallardo Garcia.

Gallardo knew the woman. Due to the sexual nature of the case, her name is being withheld.

Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports give the following account:

The woman said she heard a knock on her door at 9 p.m. Sept. 16 and assumed it was a family member. She told the person to enter and stood at the door. Gallardo forced his way into her room, pushed her onto her bed, and took her panties and shorts off. She screamed for help, but he covered her mouth with his hand and attacked her for 10 or 15 minutes.

Then he left the apartment. When she told family members, deputies were called and the woman was taken to Planned Parenthood, where a rape kit examination was conducted. She then provided deputies with a taped statement and, while at the Sheriff’s Office, she called him and deputies taped the conversation.

She asked him why he did what he did and he said he just wanted to talk. She again asked why he did it and he said, “You did not say anything when I took your shorts and panties off.”

She told him that because he had her mouth covered, she couldn’t say anything. Sheriff’s reports deleted his response.

He then was arrested. The response to his answer when deputies asked if he knew why he was being arrested also was deleted from the report.

Although the prosecution had evidence a crime was committed — the taped statement and taped phone conversation with admissions — those statements can’t be used at trial.

A 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Crawford vs. Washington, held that under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, defendants must have the right to confront witnesses against them in criminal cases.