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Police Link Suspect's DNA To Library Rape, Prior Rape

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 28, 2008

TAMPA - Preliminary DNA test results link Bloomingdale High School student Kendrick Morris not only to the rape of an 18-year-old girl outside the Valrico library last week but also to a rape in Clair-Mel City about a year ago, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office official said Monday.

The sheriff's office arrested 16-year-old Morris on Saturday in connection with the attack two days earlier outside Bloomingdale Regional Public Library. He is being held at the Juvenile Assessment Center on two counts of sexual battery with great bodily harm and one count each of kidnapping and aggravated battery.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said Monday that Morris will be prosecuted as an adult.

Additional DNA tests at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are being conducted to establish more solid results, but it appears that Morris is responsible both for the library attack and the rape of a worker at Children's Lighthouse Day Care Center on June 28, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said.

"They're confident. … It's a match," Docobo said of FDLE. "He will be charged in that case."

Detectives now are reviewing other unsolved rape cases to see whether Morris might be linked to those as well, Docobo said.

Meanwhile, county officials are discussing installing security cameras outside public libraries as a result of Thursday's attack at Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, which occurred while the 18-year-old returned books after hours.

County libraries have surveillance cameras indoors, said Marcia Mejia, a county spokeswoman. Officials are evaluating whether installing outdoor cameras is feasible within the budget, which will be finalized in June, she said.

The victim in the library attack, who is not identified because of the nature of the crime, suffered trauma to her head and face. She is in critical but stable condition at Tampa General Hospital, the sheriff's office said.

Docobo said he and Sheriff David Gee visited her on Monday. The teenager slips in and out of consciousness and has not been able to be interviewed, Docobo said.

Her family told them "she has very little recollection of what occurred," Docobo said.

The victim is a local high school senior but does not attend Bloomingdale High.

Nevertheless, Bloomingdale High School Principal Mark West sent a letter home with students on Monday expressing prayers for both her family and sympathy for "the family of the young man charged."

West's letter advised that the school's counseling team was available to any students who needed to talk. The letter also said that for Morris's own safety and that of others, Morris would not return to any county school "until a determination has been made by the proper School Board officials."

Earlier Monday, Morris' mother, Lisa Stevens, said the accusations against her son were "purely speculation."

Apprised Monday evening of the preliminary DNA test results, Stevens said she had no comment.

Before Docobo announced the preliminary test results, students outside the library at 1906 Bloomingdale Ave. in Valrico expressed disbelief that Morris was involved in the attack.

"He played football, but he didn't really seem like a violent person," said 16-year-old sophomore Charles Mentzer. "I don't believe he did it."

Seventeen-year-old Venessa Lee, a senior, said she and Morris often hung out together at the library after school.

"He is such a nice guy," she said. "I don't think he would do something like that."

Docobo said investigators first identified Morris as a suspect in the rape at the library because of fingerprints that remained "on various items at the scene."

Morris has a juvenile arrest record. The sheriff's office in October 2004 charged him with felony animal cruelty; the legal disposition of that case was not available.

According to an arrest report, witnesses at Hawthorne Retirement Center in Brandon saw the boy, then 13, beat a bird — identified as either a duck or an egret — several times with a tree branch, then pick it up by the neck. The beating injured the bird's wing.

Morris told deputies in the report that he was chasing the bird with a stick and the bird "tripped and fell."

One of the witnesses told deputies the boy, upon being asked where his parents were, said they were in meetings and he had to pick up his 3-year-old sister at day care.

DNA tests can take weeks, but Docobo said the FDLE "pulled out all the stops" in expediting evidence from the library rape. Over the weekend, the agency informed the sheriff's office of the preliminary match between DNA from the attack and a swab taken from Morris, Docobo said.

Detectives realized the June 28 rape in Clair-Mel City occurred roughly three blocks from Morris' home and asked FDLE to compare Morris' DNA with forensic evidence from that attack as well, Docobo said.

Preliminary test results on Monday linked Morris to that rape, Docobo said.

The sheriff's office said a man with a knife confronted an employee unlocking the day care center at 7415 Destin Drive at 5:50 a.m. on June 28 and forced her inside. The man demanded money, then raped her, the sheriff's office said.

Another employee's arrival startled the attacker, who escaped through a side door. The day care center had surveillance video, but it "didn't prove fruitful" in identifying anyone, Docobo said.

Reporter Keith Morelli and editor Howard Altman contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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