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Man Charged With Kidnapping, Rape

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By LISA A. DAVIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2007

ODESSA - She thought the man driving the gold truck was taking her to a friend's home last Friday night. Instead, he took her to a warehouse, covered her eyes with duct tape, forced her to strip, bound her with zip ties and a chain, then raped her on the floor, investigators say.

Now, Richard "Rick" Marano, 35, sits in the Land O' Lakes jail on charges of kidnapping and sexual battery. Bail is set at $200,000.

He was arrested Wednesday afternoon by Pasco County Sheriff's Office detectives.

Sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin gave this account of what led to Marano's arrest:

The 34-year-old woman's friend had dropped her off at U.S. 19 and Main Street after deciding she couldn't take her to Hudson. A moment later, as the woman walked north on the highway, she noticed the truck following her. A man rolled down his window, asking her if she needed a lift.

She said yes, and hopped in. He introduced himself as Rick.

"He looked clean," she told deputies later.

But as their journey together began about 7 p.m., she realized he was driving in the wrong direction.

He was going to pick up some dope, he explained, according to the sheriff's office report, and asked her to slide down in the seat so she couldn't see where they were driving.

When they stopped, they were outside of Air Maxx, an air conditioning warehouse shop in the West Pasco Industrial Park, off State Road 54 east of Little Road. Marano went inside the business where he works and emerged with a roll of black duct tape. He covered her eyes with the tape, then forced her inside the building at 11530 Prosperous Drive, the report stated.

At some point, Marano, an air-conditioner technician, forced her to smoke crack.

He made her take off her clothes and used zip ties and a chain to bind her to a chair. He wrapped duct tape around her head several times.

Then he untied her and made her sit on the warehouse floor and raped her, according to detectives.

During the attack, the woman tried to fight back, wrestling with him, an arrest affidavit states.

But he noticed an open window and suddenly became nervous, trying to cover it, Tobin said.

That's when the woman, who could see with one eye, was able to rip off the duct tape and run.

She ran through the woods and a nearby swamp, and eventually into a subdivision. A man walking his dog saw the naked woman approaching his door sometime after 8 p.m. and went to help.

"She was upset and distraught," said Tobin. "She told the man she had just been raped."

The man's wife got the woman clothes and they dialed 911. When deputies arrived at Air Maxx, they found black duct tape in the parking lot and the door unlocked. After making contact with the company's owner, they started processing the scene.

The owner told deputies only one person besides him had a key: Rick Marano. The truck described by the woman was a work truck Marano wasn't supposed to be driving, Tobin said, because his license is suspended.
Detectives went to his house at 7915 Foxbloom Drive in Port Richey but found only his wife, who said she hadn't seen him since he left for work on a bicycle that morning.

He was arrested on a charge of grand theft Saturday, accused of stealing the work truck. At the time, detectives didn't have probable cause in connection to the rape, Tobin said, and Marano bailed out the next day.

By Wednesday, detectives had probable cause on the rape and kidnapping, and were able to catch up with Marano again and arrest him on those charges.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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