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Looking for 1, police nab 3 brothers

Police went to make an arrest on a sexual battery charge. They also found that man's siblings, who are wanted for murder.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published June 8, 2005

TAMPA - Police went to an apartment Tuesday morning looking for a Tampa man accused of having sex with his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter.

There, they found something they didn't expect: the man's two younger brothers, both wanted on first-degree murder charges in Philadelphia.

Roberto Jimenez, 37, Carlos Alberto Jimenez, 32, and Edwin Jimenez, 30, were all booked at the Orient Road jail on Tuesday and were held without bail. Police charged Roberto Jimenez with one count of sexual battery on a victim under 13. His two brothers were listed in jail records as fugitives on outstanding warrants in the the murder of a man shot to death May 24 in Philadelphia.

Police also charged the girl's 37-year-old mother with one count of obstructing justice, a misdemeanor. She was not arrested but was questioned and given a notice to appear in court. Police did not release the mother's name because doing so could identify the child, whose name was not released because of the nature of the charges.

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said the 12-year-old has been placed in a "safe location" by the Department of Children and Families, which is conducting its own investigation.

The girl broke her silence over the weekend and confided in a friend, saying that her mother's boyfriend had been having sex with her several times a week for the last year, said Tampa police Sgt. Julie Massucci, head of the sex crimes, child abuse and family violence unit. Police said Roberto Jimenez had threatened to hurt the girl and her mother if she told anyone.

Massucci said the friend told her own mother, who called police.

The girl had been staying with her friend over the weekend while her mother and Roberto Jimenez went to Philadelphia to help his brothers move to Florida. Tampa police began their investigation Saturday and went to arrest Roberto Jimenez on Tuesday morning, when they learned he had returned home.

Massucci said Roberto Jimenez and the girl's mother had been together about six years. For the past few months, they lived at an apartment complex a few blocks west of Temple Terrace.

When officers arrived at the apartment, they detained all three Jimenez brothers until they could use their ID cards to figure out which one was Roberto. While doing so, police learned of the outstanding murder warrants for Carlos and Edwin Jimenez.

The Philadelphia Police Department said Tuesday that Carlos and Edwin Jimenez were wanted in the murder of Carlos Alicea, 25, of Philadelphia. He was found May 24 off West Cambria Street with multiple gunshot wounds to the back, stomach and chest. He died after being taken to the hospital.

Tuesday morning, as Carlos and Edwin Jimenez were led by police from downtown headquarters to patrol cars waiting to take them to jail, they looked at each other, shared a grin, then hung their heads.

They will be extradited to Philadelphia.

--Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

[Last modified June 8, 2005, 06:43:20]