Report: DNA tests in Walker Middle rape case didn't match defendants

Tests of DNA taken from items seized in the Walker Middle School rape case didn't find matches for any of the four teenage defendants, according to a report released today.

Authorities say Diemante Roberts and Lee Louis Myers, both 15, and Raymond A. Price-Murray and Randall John Moye, both 14, bullied a flag football teammate for weeks in March and April before sexually assaulting the boy in a locker room at the Odessa school.

Roberts and Price-Murray used a hockey stick and broomstick to assault their flag-football teammate, prosecutors say, while Myers and Moye restrained the boy.

A hockey stick, a hockey stick shaft, a hockey stick blade and two brooms were tested as part of the investigation.

Prosecutors released a report saying "No determination can be made regarding possible contribution" from any of the defendants to the DNA recovered from the evidence. The report recommends further testing.

Tim Taylor, an attorney for Myers, said the DNA results are "obviously a positive" development for the defense.

New details of the prosecution's case also emerged from documents released today.

Five teammates witnessed attacks on the victim, according to summaries of interviews filed by Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives. One parent saw "horseplay" between two of the students and saw someone taunted with fat jokes. The summary does not indicate which students were involved.

Twelve teammates or their parents told investigators they saw nothing. One teammate said he saw others taunting the victim.

Parents for two teammates refused to let investigators talk to their sons.

Those who reported witnessing assaults described defendants holding the victim down and "poking" him with a hockey stick. Witnesses to some of the incidents reported the victim was wearing shorts.

One 12-year-old boy told investigators he saw two incidents, neither of which involved Myers.

"Both times, (the victim) was yelling stop," the boy told detectives.

Another 12-year-old said he saw Price-Murray "coming out of the showers with a hockey stick banging it on the ground" before an attack.

A 14-year-old reported witnessing a similar incident, but said the victim was laughing when he got away.

The hockey stick and other items were seized after the four defendants were arrested at the school in May.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst previously found a mixture of DNA on the edge of the hockey stick and on the hockey stick blade. The victim's DNA was present in the mixture, as was possible DNA from at least two other individuals, documents state. The analyst also found mixtures of DNA from two to four individuals on other parts of the items.

Bryant Camareno, an attorney for Price-Murray, said the new DNA test results were not a surprise.

"We said from the beginning they had nothing to hide as far as submitting DNA," he said. "There's nothing connecting my client to those weapons."

But the results may not mean anything, according to a forensic scientist at Florida Forensics, a DNA laboratory in Jacksonville, which is not involved in the case.

Julie Sutton said recovering DNA from an object touched by someone requires a large amount of DNA to have been left behind. Some people shed large amounts of skin cells; others shed less.

Although people tend to shed more skin cells on rough surfaces than on smooth, Sutton said, it's more difficult to recover DNA from a rough surface. Also, if there is a lot of bacteria or dirt on an object that could degrade the DNA.

The four students have pleaded not guilty to sexual battery charges and are free on bail.

Prosecutors on Monday dropped two of the four charges against Myers. Taylor said the defense provided documents establishing Myers didn't attend practice during the three days covered by those charges.

"We're trying to get them to drop all the sexual assault charges because we're confident he was not involved in any of the sexual assaults," Taylor said.

Camareno said he learned Tuesday that his client was home from school sick on two of the days in question. He's researching whether Price-Murray attended practice on the third day.