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Suspect's account of day girl died hints at defense

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published September 9, 2006

TAMPA - The morning deputies think 2½-year-old Heather Romance was raped and fatally injured, her babysitter said he noticed blood on her panties.

"Is anyone molesting you?" Eric Tate, 18, asked the toddler as he changed her underwear, according to a statement he gave investigators.

Then, Tate says, he went outside, placed the girl in a stroller and spent 20 minutes fixing his bicycle - never calling anyone to tell them about the blood.

Later, he said, she fell off a couch and became unconscious.

The account, chronicled in discovery materials filed in the criminal case against Tate, does not match evidence authorities say shows that the Lutz babysitter molested his girlfriend's daughter on Aug. 16.

Heather suffered head, brain and vaginal injuries that led to her death a day later, investigators said. A medical examination at St. Joseph's Hospital found she had been recently sexually assaulted.

Tate is jailed on first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and sexual battery charges.

But Tate's statements to investigators may give a glimpse of his potential defense argument.

Though Tate's attorney could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon, the court documents show Tate has denied any involvement in her sexual assault and death.

According to the documents, Tate told investigators he began dating Heather's mother, Amy Romance, about six months before the incident - about a week after meeting her. Two months later, the couple began living together, he said, most recently at 14711 N 30th St. in Lutz, where the incident occurred.

Sometime during the night of Aug. 15, Tate's account goes, the toddler awoke from a bad dream and climbed into bed with the couple. Tate was still in bed when Amy Romance left for work about 7:30 a.m., leaving Heather in his care as she did regularly.

Tate says he got up between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., went into the girl's bedroom to get some clean clothes for her and returned to his bedroom to change her, the documents say.

That's when he says he noticed blood, according to the court papers. After changing Heather's underwear and working on his bike, Tate says, he cued the DVD Shark Tale for Heather to watch. Then, he sat on the left side of the couch as Heather jumped up and down on the right side, he told investigators.

Though he scolded her for jumping, she continued and then slipped and fell on a carpeted floor, injuring her head and right shoulder and causing her eyes to move to one side, he said.

Tate said he called Amy Romance at work to tell her what had happened. Then, he called his own mother, Cindy Tate. Then he called 911.

Romance and Cindy Tate beat the ambulance to the residence, according to statements from Eric Tate and Romance included in the court files. Cindy Tate told her son she tried to administer CPR to the child when she realized Heather wasn't breathing.

At the hospital, doctors found severe bruising on Heather's head, ears, back and chin, and fresh genital wounds.

Detectives confiscated the child's underwear and some bedsheets from the home, as well as a napkin they found in Tate's front pocket and a bloodied napkin they found in a bathroom wastebasket.

Tate told investigators the blood on the napkin in the bathroom was his own, from an injury he suffered on his ankle while riding his bike, according to court records.

Tate, who is held at Orient Road Jail without bail, worked for Hillsborough County public schools from mid January to May 1 as an afterschool care worker for Muller Elementary.

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@sptimes.com or 813 226-3383.

[Last modified September 9, 2006, 01:12:34]