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Cell phone helps snare rape suspect

Police arrest a 19-year-old who also is being charged with an attack earlier this week.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published December 2, 2005

TAMPA - A 14-year-old girl awoke before dawn Thursday to find a strange man standing at the end of her bed. He had climbed through her bedroom window.

He threatened to beat her if she didn't do what he wanted, according to police. Then he raped her - twice - as her family slept at the other end of the South Tampa apartment.

He took the girl's cell phone and fled, police say.

The victim immediately alerted her family, and they called 911. Several officers swarmed the area around West Shore and Gandy boulevards. The attack, and the description of the attacker, sounded remarkably similar to a rape that happened earlier this week in the same area.

Within 10 minutes, officers spotted 19-year-old Joshua Jones riding a bicycle a couple of blocks from the victim's home.

They stopped him at 4:10 a.m. at West Shore Boulevard and Bay Court Avenue. He told officers he was going to visit his sister, said police Capt. Hugh Miller. But officers discovered he was carrying the victim's cell phone.

Jones is now in the county jail, charged with the two South Tampa rapes.

"That cell phone confirmed we had the right guy," said police spokesman Joe Durkin.

Miller said quick policing and the victims' detailed descriptions led to the speedy arrest of Jones.

Jones has never been charged with a violent crime, according to state records. But Miller said he is well known among local officers because of a string of arrests that began at age 12.

"We have someone with a history of juvenile crime who had graduated to what could have become a case of serial rapes in the city," Miller said. "But it was stopped because of the officers' quick response and the presence of mind of the victims."

The first attack happened at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Durkin said. An adult woman was home alone when a man broke in through a window, threatened to beat her and assaulted her, according to a police report.

Police withheld the victim's name, age and address to protect her privacy.

The victim managed to break free and run to a neighbor's home for help. Her attacker fled, and despite "a very good description" by the victim, officers who searched the area did not find the attacker.

Then came Thursday's attack on the teen.

Durkin did not have figures for the number of rapes in the city so far this year, but in 2004 there were 343 forcible sex offenses reported in Tampa, according to the FBI. In 2003, there were 391.

Most rapists are known to their victims, Durkin said.

"The complete stranger breaking into a home and doing this is, fortunately, a rare occurrence," he said.

In another case this week, a 16-year-old was accused of breaking into a woman's home and raping her. He was transferred from the Juvenile Assessment Center to the county jail because the State Attorney's Office is pursuing adult charges against him.

Miguel Angel Martinez-Gama is charged with burglary of a dwelling and sexual battery with a deadly weapon. Tampa police say he broke into the victim's home through a back door the morning of Nov. 10 as she slept. He took a knife from the kitchen and raped her, according to a report.

The woman told police she didn't know the teen but he had been riding his bicycle back and forth past her house and staring at her. She said Martinez-Gama told her, "I know you're alone in the house."

And in September, police charged a 34-year-old construction worker who they say repeatedly raped a woman who was walking along West Shore Boulevard after she got separated from friends at the Green Iguana nightclub. Again, the victim did not know her attacker, police said.

Jones has been charged with two counts of sexual battery, two counts of burglary and one count of petty theft. He was held without bail in the Orient Road jail.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Jones' first arrest came when he was 12. Tampa police arrested him on charges of larceny and burglary of a structure. Local authorities have since arrested him 10 more times on charges ranging from auto theft to trespassing on school grounds and failing to appear in court.

In October, he was sentenced to six months' probation for the trespassing charge, according to court records.

--Staff researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 2, 2005, 01:13:14]