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Clothing, Photos Of Victim Shown At Tampa Rape Trial

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2008

Updated: 12/16/2008 05:43 pm

TAMPA - It was a battered woman who stood before a nurse at the Hillsborough Crisis Center in August 2005 after, police said, she had been kidnapped and repeatedly raped for three hours.

"She was covered from head to toe in injuries," Rita Hall, the nurse, told jurors today. "There were lots of scrapes and scratches on her body."

Hall was among the parade of police officers and crime scene investigators prosecutors called to the witness stand today hoping to establish the forensic foundation to convict Amos Mequel Busby, 37.

Busby is being tried on charges of kidnapping and seven counts of sexual battery for the attack that occurred in the early morning of Aug. 11, 2005.

The woman, now 35, testified for two hours Monday, the trial's first witness. She told jurors of the pain and fear she endured.

"My whole body ached," she said. "I thought he was going to kill me. You think you are going to die."

The woman said her glasses were knocked off in the initial attack when her assailant grabbed her from behind as she walked along South West Shore Boulevard, choked her and dragged her in a secluded area off the Spring Lake Bayou pedestrian bridge.

Without her glasses, the woman said, she couldn't identify her attacker.

Prosecutors hope forensic evidence will provide the identification.

The woman said her attacker used a piece of plastic as a condom after she tried to get him to stop by saying she had AIDS. The woman didn't have the disease but hoped the fear of contracting it would make the man stop.

Authorities say they identified Busby from DNA found in semen taken from a piece of plastic recovered at the crime scene.

Jurors heard today how the plastic was found and the hands it went through in getting to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory for examination. When the trial resumes Wednesday, FDLE officials are expect to testify about their findings.

Prosecutors presented the torn, dirty and blood-splattered clothing the victim wore that night. They also provided jurors with 120 enlarged color photos taken during the initial rape exam and five days after the attack to show the extent of the victim's injuries.

Despite the scrapes and other injuries, the physical examination alone was insufficient for Hall to conclude a rape had occurred, she said on cross-examination.

"I was expecting to find more" injuries, hall said.

Hall said the physical and gynecological exams when combined with the woman's story were sufficient to convince her a sexual attack occurred.

The woman said she went with friends to the Green Iguana Bar & Grill, 4029 S. West Shore Blvd., shortly before closing time. She said her friends accidently left her. Her cell phone wouldn't work in the bar's parking lot so she started walking north to try to get a signal.

It was during the walk that she was assaulted.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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