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Killer held in recent attack on woman
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
LAND O'LAKES -- The woman told detectives and people at the bar what the man looked like: tall, white, slender, middle-aged, sandy-blond hair, mustache. That was the man who had jumped from the roof of Sam's Tavern to the parking lot about 2 a.m. Tuesday and had taken the 21-year-old woman on a terrifying ride that ended when she jumped out of her own moving car. The description sounded familiar to some people at the bar at 2624 Land O'Lakes Blvd. Then someone offered a name: Travis Gene McCall. When Pasco County Sheriff's Office placed McCall's mug shot in a photo lineup, the woman told them she saw her abductor, the man who stole her car and tried to force her into a sex act in a remote area sometimes called Cypress Bayou. McCall, 44, was arrested about midnight Thursday and charged with kidnapping, attempted sexual battery and grand theft auto. He is being held at the county jail in Land O'Lakes without bail. Authorities withheld the name of the woman who was attacked because of the nature of the charges. McCall gave no address to officers, but records show he lived in Lutz or Tampa -- between stints behind bars. McCall was convicted in 1985 in the killing of Winston Lee Bain, 19, of Brooksville on Aug. 18, 1984. Three bloody concrete blocks and two bloodstained boards were found near Bain's battered body in a secluded Hernando County trash dump on County Line Road. McCall told detectives he killed Bain, sodomized him with a metal mop handle and returned to the scene later that morning to look at the body, according to newspaper accounts. McCall, then a forklift operator from the Pasco community of Shady Hills, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. But McCall was released after just 11 1/2 years, under old laws that gave inmates early release for good behavior behind bars. His behavior outside prison remained troubled, however. He was arrested for possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine, driving under the influence and habitually driving with a suspended license. He returned to prison in December 2001 for an 11-month stay, this time for driving with a suspended license and for two cocaine possession convictions. A year of drug offender probation was supposed to follow, but McCall stopped reporting to his officer. Up until his arrest Friday morning in the Sam's Tavern attack, the state Department of Corrections had labeled McCall an "absconder/fugitive." The attack occurred about 2 a.m. Tuesday as the woman was leaving the bar, sheriff's reports said. The man jumped from the roof toward the woman and nearly knocked her down. She ran, but the man caught her and forced her into her car, the report said. He pulled into a dark neighborhood, stopped the car in a cul-de-sac, exposed himself and asked the woman to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, he grabbed her head and tried to force her, the report said. She came up with a plan: She suggested they go somewhere else, because they could get caught at that spot with so many houses nearby. He agreed and started driving down another street, which authorities later determined was Henry Drive. Then came the woman's opportunity: The car began to skid as it hit some loose gravel. The man was concentrating on the road, giving the woman a chance to open her car door and jump out, the report said. She ran and screamed for help. A resident handed her a phone to call 911 as the man drove away in her 1997 green Saturn SL-2, the report said. Detectives later found the woman's car abandoned at the Sunset Cleaners at 18455 U.S. 41 in Hillsborough County. After the woman identified McCall as her attacker, deputies tracked him down at 20733 Green Creek Circle in Land O'Lakes. He was arrested about 11:30 p.m. Thursday on warrants for violating his probation on the cocaine and driver's license charges. Shortly after midnight, the Sheriff's Office added the charges from the Sam's Tavern attack. McCall declined to make a statement to detectives without his lawyer present, reports said. -- Bridget Hall Grumet covers crime in east Pasco. She can be reached at 352-521-5757 ext. 23 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 23. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com
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