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Gibsonton Woman Recounts Home Invasion, Violation

By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 25, 2008

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Rigoberto Morón Martinez

When Melissa Dojka heard a noise in her bathroom while she was taking a shower, she figured it was her boyfriend.

It wasn't.

It was Rigoberto Morón Martinez, she said.

"I pulled the shower curtain back the same time he did," Dojka said. "He said, 'Don't scream or I'll kill you.' "

Dojka and her boyfriend said the attack began about 1:10 a.m. July 3 when two men broke into the Gibsonton home, put guns to the head of her 28-year-old boyfriend and duct-taped his hands and feet.

Dojka, 23, was in the shower when the attack began.

Martinez sexually battered her, and the men fled with a cell phone, cash, a laptop and several other pieces of computer equipment, detectives said.

Martinez was arrested Aug. 20. He was charged with other sexual assaults as well, including an Aug. 15 attack at The Docks restaurant in Apollo Beach and an Aug. 3 attack at a St. Petersburg restaurant.

The Tampa Tribune typically does not list the names of sex-crime victims, but Dojka agreed to have her name published.

"I still, I shake when I talk about it," she said.

Dojka said Martinez tried to talk the younger man into raping her as well, but he refused.

Martinez's right index fingerprint was found on the home's doorknob, and Dojka identified him through photographs as a man who attacked her, a criminal arrest affidavit states.

Dojka's boyfriend, who would only give his name as Richard, said he doesn't know Martinez but his co-workers tell him Martinez frequented a Gibsonton store where Richard works. Richard said the July 3 attack was horrifying.

"We were sitting in our home minding our own business, and the next thing you know we have guns pointed at us and we have people violating every aspect of our lives," he said. "It just completely destroys your world. It's unreal."

Martinez was arrested in April 2007 on a misdemeanor charge of not having a valid driver's license and Aug. 5 on a misdemeanor charge of failing to appear on a domestic-related charge.

Dojka said investigators should have been able to use Martinez's fingerprints from prior arrests to catch him before he attacked again.

Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said investigators tried their best.

"It was only a partial fingerprint so it could not be computer matched," Callaway said.

Investigators needed a name of a potential suspect before trying to match a partial print, he said. Martinez's name didn't come up until August.

Dojka remains haunted by the experience.

"When it's dark, I can't go outside alone," she said. "I have to leave a light on to go to sleep. I have to sleep in the daytime. And I think the people that know [what happened] look at me different."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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