Pasco rape victim 'surviving,' happy about teens' arrests

The 89-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted and nearly smothered during a home invasion robbery this week said this morning that she is "delighted" to hear arrests were made in the case. "I'm bruised all over from the beating they gave me," the woman said as she stood in the driveway of her home in Palm Terrace Gardens. She said is "surviving," but still in pain. "I'm 4-11 but have 6 feet of pain," said the woman, who told investigators that three masked men broke into her home, raped her, ransacked the house while looking for money and tried to smother her with a pillow. She told investigators that she heard one of her assailants say, "Is she dead yet?" The Pasco County Sheriff's Office arrested Carlos Fernandez, 15, and Luis Reyes Jr., 14 were charged with attempted first-degree murder, sexual battery, grand theft auto and burglary.
The mother of Reyes, though, said today that her son didn't participate in the attack, although he was at the woman's house when it happened. Aida Santiago said her son stood at the door and froze when he saw the woman was being assaulted by the other two people.

"He is angry at himself for being there," she said.

Santiago said she turned her son in to the sheriff's office. She said his mistake was picking the wrong friends and she had warned him about associating with Fernandez.

"I told him, 'He is bad news. Don't hang with him,' " she said.

Investigators said that Wednesday wasn't the first time Fernandez and Reyes were at the woman's home. On April 2, the teens, along with 16-year-old Sean Michael Maus, broke into the woman's house, the sheriff's office reported.

They took a flashlight, snacks and the keys to her car, which they took on a "joy ride," the sheriff's office reported. The car was recovered.

Reyes and Fernandez have been charged in the car theft. The teens also have been charged in connection with recent burglaries at Georgia's Smoke Shop, 11134 U.S. 19 Port Richey, and Jasmine Discount Beverage, 10604 Devco Drive, Port Richey.

Maus, of 11240 Snyder Ave., Port Richey, was arrested Wednesday and charged with grand theft auto and burglary.

Detectives are investigating whether Maus is connected to the sexual assault and robbery of the woman, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

The parents of Fernandez and Maus couldn't be reached for comment.

Dawn Walzak, a neighbor who knows the Maus family, said Maus' mother was a caregiver for the woman who was attacked.

Walzak said she is angry about the situation, both because of the crimes committed against the woman and because of Maus' possible involvement in at least leading the other teens to the woman's house.

"I hate to think any teenage boy has the capability to do this to that woman," Walzak said.

She also said Maus' mother should have realized when the car was stolen that her son had access to the car.

Walzak said she has known Maus since he was at student at Schrader Elementary School, where her son also attended. Maus was in special education classes and one of his legs didn't grow correctly, she said. Often he was in a cast or a wheelchair because of medical procedures to try to correct the problem, she said.

Walzak said her family used to secretly leave gifts at the Maus house on Christmas Eve because they worried the children there wouldn't get any presents.

She said Maus was a "good boy who had potential," but had a difficult home life and "what was bad in his life was so bad" he couldn't overcome it.

Pictures Of Suspect In Eve Carson Murder Released

I guess the ‘random crime’ is just another college student murdered by a black thug



CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Detectives are searching for a man videotaped using the ATM card of the University of North Carolina student body president who was shot to death on a city street. Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran released two surveillance photos Saturday of the suspect taken at an ATM machine in Chapel Hill, but declined to say when the photos were taken. Police also released a photo of a baseball cap the suspect appears to be wearing in both of the surveillance pictures. Curran said the photos are their biggest break so far in the case.

Eve Carson was found Wednesday morning on a street not far from campus. She had been shot several times, including once in the right temple, and her body was found lying in the street.

Her truck was discovered Thursday, hours after police identified Carson as the shooting victim.

Curran said police have circulated the picture with police departments in North Carolina, hoping their officers might be able to identify the suspect.

He said the ATM photos show a young man in a baseball cap and hooded sweat shirt driving a sport utility vehicle that may be Carson’s Toyota Highlander.

The police chief said Carson appears to be the victim of a random crime.

JUST IN: Jena 6 Member Arrested

Blacks will be blacks!

A member of the “Jena Six” was arrested and charged with assault today, according to an official at a Carrollton, Texas, jail.

Bryant R. Purvis, 19, now living in the Dallas area, was charged with assault causing bodily injury and is being held in the city jail with no bail pending a Thursday morning bond hearing, the jail official said.

Broadcast media have reported his arrest was in connection to an assault on a fellow Hebron High School student after vandalism to Purvis’ car.

Calls to Tina Jones’, Purvis’ mother, went unanswered today. Information about the arrest wasn’t immediately available, and messages left for a public information officer for the Carrollton Police Department were unreturned.

Purvis and five other black teens were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 4, 2006, assault on a fellow Jena High School student, Justin Barker, who is white.

Soon after Purvis’ arrest, his mother said she sent him to live with his uncle, Dallas Cowboy defensive lineman Jason Hatcher, so he could stay out of trouble and out of the limelight.

Purvis had stayed out of the limelight for most of last year following the high-profile case, but he did appear on Black Entertainment Television’s Hip-Hop Awards. Purvis and fellow Jena Six defendant Carwin Jones helped present the video of the year award during the October awards show.

A message left for Darrell Hickman, Purvis’ attorney, went unreturned. But during a December interview, the Alexandria attorney said he was hopeful that LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters would drop the charges against Purvis.

“I still feel that Bryant is totally innocent in this case," Hickman said. "Only one person out of a number of witnesses indicated they saw Bryant involved. I don't think they have a strong case against him at all."

The case of the Jena Six has caught attention worldwide and led to what many have called the biggest civil rights demonstration of the new millennium on Sept. 20, 2007, when more than 20,000 marched through Jena.

Funniest Arrest Photo EVER!

Allentown police had suspected William Torres of dealing drugs in the city. But an undercover narcotics investigation yielded much more, and resulted in Torres, 21, being charged early Saturday with two counts of homicide.

Police said Torres, whose last known address was 436 Turner St., Allentown, gunned down two men at Fourth and Allen streets last month. According to court documents, Torres admitted killing the men.

Torres was driving on Turner Street Friday afternoon when he was pulled over by police and arrested. He was wearing a hooded sweartshirt with a skull-head pattern on it, pajama bottoms and fuzzy lion-faced slippers at the time. He was still wearing the get-up when he was arraigned after midnight at Lehigh County prison.

He is being held without bail on the homicide charges and two charges of conspiracy to commit homicide.

In a separate matter, he was charged Saturday with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, two counts of possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy.

Police said the drug charges stem from an undercover investigation in which police made controlled buys at 615 Gordon St. and kept the house under surveillance. Four people, including Torres, were selling cocaine and heroin out of the home, according to court documents.

Police have not said how they came to suspect Torres in the shooting deaths of Carlos Collazo, 32, and Jorge Camacho, 36, both of Allentown. But in an affidavit filed in court, police said Torres told them that he and another man had been looking for Collazo and Camacho, and that Torres admitted to killing both. The other man has not been charged in the homicides.

Camacho, who was a mechanic, and Collazo, were found in the 500 block of N. Fourth St. on Dec. 12. Residents reported hearing four or five shots and seeing a car speeding away at about 7:50 p.m. Police at the time said they were looking for a dark-colored vehicle and two men.