Suspect arrested again days before his trial
A man set to face trial on sexual assault charges is now accused of striking another woman in the same neighborhood.
By JAMAL THALJI
Published February 19, 2005
DADE CITY - Darin Salters was arrested two years ago, accused of raping a 52-year-old woman at knifepoint in her Wesley Chapel home.
But he was freed from jail weeks after his August 2003 arrest by the 2nd District Court of Appeal because of a legal mixup.
Days before his scheduled trial next week on charges of armed burglary and sexual battery, for which he faces life in prison, Salters was arrested again Thursday.
Authorities say he attacked another woman in the same neighborhood, striking her and trapping her in her own home.
Salters, 35, was arrested blocks away from where authorities said both crimes occurred. He was arrested at the same address - 6953 Angus Valley Drive - where he was arrested in 2003.
"This is a case of profiling victims who live alone in the neighborhood," John Laycock, a Pasco sheriff's victim advocate, told a judge at the Pasco County Courthouse on Friday afternoon.
The 59-year-old victim from Wednesday's attack, who was not identified by authorities, sat nearby as Salters made his first appearance on the new charges via video camera from the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes.
"If he gets out I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "He'll kill someone."
In 2003, Salters is accused of breaking into the victim's house, authorities said, where she awoke at 1:25 a.m. to find him standing over her naked, armed with a knife. After he sexually assaulted her, authorities said, the victim persuaded Salters to get dressed and leave. A police dog unit later tracked Salters from the victim's house to his own, the report said.
The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office had to file a charging document within 21 days of his 2003 arrest. The deadline was missed.
Salters' attorney, Assistant Public Defender Bob Focht, filed to hold an adversarial preliminary hearing, demanding the state present evidence of probable cause to hold Salters.
But Assistant State Attorney Phil Van Allen said his office wasn't aware of the hearing and it was postponed 10 days.
That was too long, Focht decided, and he argued as much in a writ of habeas corpus to the 2nd District Court of Appeal that Salters was being held as a result of legal error. The court agreed, freeing Salters that October.
On Wednesday, authorities said, Salters approached the victim's house about 8 p.m., grabbed her and pushed her inside to the floor. He held her against her will, a Sheriff's Office report said, grabbing her when she tried to get to the front door and grabbing a phone from her when she tried to call for help.
After 30 minutes, the victim told authorities, she persuaded Salters to leave her house.
Detectives say the victim later identified Salters as her attacker from a photograph. Salters on Thursday admitted that he knew the victim and was at her house, the report said, but he refused to speak further without his lawyer.
Salter was charged with burglary of a residence, false imprisonment, simple battery and tampering with a witness. He was booked into the county jail in lieu of $40,500 bail.
Authorities scrambled to keep him there, asking Senior Judge J. Tim Strickland to order Salters held without bail. He did, but only until today, when another judge will figure out what to do with Salters.
"I simply don't want for there to be a way for you to somehow not be here with us," Strickland said.
Focht said Salters' could still go to trial next week on the 2003 charges. But a crowded docket and the speedy trial requirement to be met on other cases could combine to push Salters' trial back.