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Suspect Charged In 1987 Rape In St. Petersburg

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 18, 2009

A federal prisoner stands accused in a rape that occurred 22 years ago in Pinellas County, according to authorities and court records.

Roberto Juan Medina, 53, faces one count of sexual battery with a deadly weapon, said Cecilia Barreda, a Pinellas sheriff's spokeswoman.

On Aug. 15, 1987, a woman was raped at knifepoint in a home in the 4500 block of 54th Avenue North at roughly 3:50 a.m., according to court records. She screamed and fought back, and her assailant told her that if she didn't comply with his sexual demands he would kill her, the court records say.

After the rape, the woman received 11 stitches in her left thumb as a result of a knife wound. She was also cut above the right breast and on her right wrist, the documents state. The attacker's DNA was removed from her after the rape.

The case was re-opened in 2007. A fingerprint expert within the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office was instructed to take a look at a print left on a bug spray can that was apparently moved so the intruder could make his way into the woman's home via a jalousie window, the documents say.

The fingerprint analyst determined the print was made by Roberto Juan Medina's right thumb, the documents say. Pinellas court records showed Medina a few months earlier had been arrested on a charge of drunken driving by the Florida Highway Patrol, and at the time he lived three-tenths of a mile away from the rape victim.

The woman, however, could not pick Medina's out of a group of photographs, the documents say. She said it was too dark that night to identify her assailant, and she did not get a good look at him.

In April, Pinellas sheriff's Lt. Mike Ring went to the Miami Federal Detention Center, where Medina was incarcerated, and asked for a voluntary swab so his DNA could be compared with that left on the woman. Medina refused, and last week Ring acquired several samples after getting a search warrant.

Barreda, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said the charge of sexual battery with a deadly weapon had been filed before Ring obtained the DNA samples.

It was unknown why Medina was in federal custody. His name does not appear on the Web site of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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