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Jury Acquits Suspect In South Tampa Rape Case

News Channel 8 photo by RUGENE MOORE

Amos Mequel Busby walked out of the Falkenburg Road Jail at 1:24 a.m.

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By TOM BRENNAN

tbrennan@tampatrib.com

Published: December 18, 2008

TAMPA - A jury has acquitted Amos Mequel Busby of charges he grabbed a woman off a South Tampa street and beat and raped her for three hours, even though DNA testimony linked him to the woman.

The jury deliberated for about three hours Wednesday before acquitting Busby on all charges. He had been charged with kidnapping and seven counts of sexual battery from an incident that happened the morning of Aug. 11, 2005.

His visibly distraught accuser had to be comforted by prosecutors after the series of not guilty verdicts were announced. The woman's wailing could be clearly heard through the closed courtroom doors.

Her disbelief was echoed by friends and family waiting in the courthouse hall.

"The evidence was laid out on the table. How do you not convict him?" her brother said.

The five men and one woman who were jurors were quickly whisked down a back stairway and could not be reached for comment.

Busby and his attorneys quickly left the courtroom.

Defense attorney Joe Caimano defended the jury's decision.

"The verdict reflects what the evidence showed," he said.

He said his client was "quiet, happy, very reserved - trying to take it all in."

Norma Borries, a crime lab analyst for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, had testified Wednesday that she found Busby's DNA on semen collected from the victim and her clothes within hours of the attack.

Caimano argued the sex between his client and the victim was consensual.

"The only thing we know for sure is she and Mr. Busby had sex," he said in his closing argument.

The defense relied on testimony from William Robert Anderson, a pathologist and a former medical examiner in Orange and Sarasota counties.

Anderson acknowledged the woman was covered in bruises, scratches and scrapes but said there weren't sufficient injuries to her genitalia to support a rape conclusion.

Caimano pointed out a series of conflicting testimony that contradicted the woman's version of events.

The woman said she was grabbed from behind as she walked from Green Iguana Bar & Grill, 4029 S. West Shore Blvd., along South West Shore, then choked and dragged to a secluded area near a pedestrian bridge. She said her attacker beat her and threatened to kill her if she did not comply.

She said her glasses were knocked off in the attack so she was unable to identify her assailant.

Caimano asked jurors not to be swayed by sympathy for the woman.

"The emotions that come out of her could pull your heart strings," he said.

Prosecutor Rita Peters scoffed at Anderson's conclusion in her closing statement.

"She was violated in every way possible," she said.

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

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