Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman says he gave out bad information in rape case

TAMPA -- A spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office admitted today that he put out bad information in the case of the restaurant rapes.

The primary suspect in the case is Rigoberto Martinez, who was arrested in Hillsborough County on Aug. 5 and then freed on bail before abducting and raping two women in Apollo Beach on Aug. 16, authorities said.

By the time he was arrested in Hillsborough, police in St. Petersburg had identified him as a suspect in the rape at the Table restaurant there Aug. 3.

For five days -- as recently as about 5 p.m. Tuesday -- Hillsborough sheriff's officials maintained that St. Petersburg police had not told them Martinez was a rape suspect before his arrest in Hillsborough.

But spokesman J.D. Callaway said this morning that was incorrect.

"That was my ignorance. I did find out later that we had been notified by St. Petersburg police that Rigoberto Martinez was a suspect in a rape," Callaway said. "It was my bad."

Sheriff David Gee had also said Monday that his deputies didn't have that information.

"He misspoke," Callaway said. "We had miscommunication here in our office."

Cristina Silva and Tom Lake, Times staff writers

Brown-Waite calls for investigation of Hillsborough Sheriff's Office in rape case

TAMPA -- U.S. Rep Ginny Brown-Waite is calling for a "full federal investigation" of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and a review of the interactions between area law enforcement and federal immigration officials. The call comes in the wake of news that one of the suspects in a string of rapes and other crimes in Hillsborough County was an illegal immigrant who was in custody twice without being detained by immigration authorities.

Read Brown-Waite's letter to U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neil

"What is it going to take for America to wake up and realize that illegal immigrants who commit crimes should not be back on our streets, but should be sent back to their home countries?" Brown-Waite said in a statement. "In this case, the lives of several Florida women have been permanently scarred by these brutal rapes; events that could have been avoided if Hillsborough County had followed the law, reported this illegal immigrant to federal authorities, and held him for trial and deportation."

Hillsborough sheriff's officials said they inform federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials each day of foreign-born detainees and have blasted what they say is a lack of interest and slow response time by ICE.

Sheriff David Gee blasted back at Brown-Waite during a news conference today, calling her inquiry "the most naive questionnaire I have ever read in my life."

"I was pretty annoyed by this statement out of Ginny Brown-Waite's office," Gee said. "I'm always annoyed when somebody in Congress wakes up and realizes a problem we have realized over the last 10 years."

Gee said Brown-Waite would have been better served by calling to get answers "before attempting to gain political traction at the expense of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office."

He said the Sheriff's Office notified ICE at the time Martinez was booked into the county on Aug. 5 that he was a Mexican national. The Sheriff's Office sends daily notifications to ICE when an inmate has a foreign-born status.

But Gee said he doesn't fault ICE for the problems.

"They are overwhelmed with this issue," the sheriff said. "You can come up with all the programs you want. But if you don't secure our borders it won't do any good."

That's the responsibility of people in Congress, like Brown-Waite, Gee said.

"All this finger pointing by people like Mrs. Waite doesn't do any good, and it doesn't make our country any safer," Gee said.

Gee said he has no intentions to formally respond to Brown-Waite's questions into how his deputies deal with potentially illegal immigrants.

But he said, "If she wants to have an investigation, I want to be the first guy interviewed."

Brown-Waite also mentions wanting to find out where St. Petersburg, along with Hillsborough and ICE, "dropped the ball." The St. Petersburg Police Department tipped off Hillsborough authorities to Martinez's whereabouts because he had an outstanding warrant, but St. Petersburg officials failed to tell the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office they suspected Martinez had a role in the rapes.

-- Times staff writer

St. Petersburg police will also charge three suspects in connection with robbery, rape case at the Table

UPDATE: St. Petersburg police on Friday plan to charge the same three suspects from an Apollo Beach rape in connection with the recent robbery and rape at the Table restaurant on Central Avenue.

St. Petersburg police plan to obtain arrest warrants charging Rigoberto Moron Martinez with armed robbery and sexual battery. They plan to charge Vicente Reyes-Carbajal, 20 and Jose Walle, 13, with armed robbery in the same case.

Police say they first identified Martinez as a suspect in the Table restaurant case and that a St. Petersburg detective recognized him from photographs of the suspect in the Apollo Beach case.

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TAMPA -- All three suspects in the abduction and brutal rapes Saturday of two women from an Apollo Beach restaurant have been arrested, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office reported today. The three are also suspects in a St. Petersburg rape earlier in the month. One of them is 13 years old.

The adults are Vicente Reyes-Carbajal and Rigoberto Moron Martinez (left in photos above), both 20, both from Ruskin. The teen is Jose Walle (right in photos above), of Wimauma.

St. Petersburg police anticipate charging the suspects in a robbery and rape at the Table restaurant, Hillsborough Sheriff's Col. Gary Terry said.

Detectives found Martinez in the Wimauma area Wednesday night, chased him and caught him. He led them to two more suspects, the Sheriff's Office said. The two fled, carjacked a vehicle, then abandoned the vehicle.

The 13-year-old and Martinez were charged. Carbajal is a suspect but not yet charged, Terry said.

ICE has put a hold on Martinez, who had a counterfeit resident alien card, the Sheriff's Office said.

"Mr. Martinez seemed to be the impetus behind it, but they were all equally involved," Terry said.

Terry said Walle, a runaway with a tattoo on cheekbone, is an active member of the Latin Life gang.

"He was just as violent as the other two individuals," Terry said.

Martinez was also charged in connection with a robbery and rape that took place early on July 3. In that case, an arrest report states that Martinez was one of two men who forced open the door of a Gibsonton home, aimed a gun at a man's head there and took a 23-year-old woman from the shower before raping her in the bedroom.

Investigators say Martinez is also suspected of driving up to two teen girls in a dark SUV as they were walking on U.S. 41 in Apollo Beach on July 19. The man tried to get them to come with him, showed them a gun and made them lie down in a vacant parking lot. One screamed, and he ran away.

Now he faces multiple charges from all three cases: two counts of armed home invasion robbery, three counts of sexual battery and two counts of false imprisonment in the July 3 case; two counts of armed kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the July 19 case; and eight counts of sexual battery, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of armed kidnapping, and one count of grand theft in the Aug. 16 case involving the two employees of the Docks bar.

While fleeing detectives, the 13-year-old Walle and Reyes-Carbajal committed an armed carjacking at 5415 Palm Dunes Court in Wimauma about 10:06 p.m. Wednesday, the Sheriff's Office said. The victim was Manuel Lopez-Nona, who lives at that address. He was sitting in his 1998 Kia Sephia when, according to the Sheriff's Office, Reyes-Carbajal pointed a pistol at his head and demanded his keys. The attackers pulled the victim from his car and beat him, then fled in his Kia, authorities said.
 
The two were caught and were arrested about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Atlantic Drive and 15th St. SE in Ruskin.
 
Reyes-Carbajal is charged with armed carjacking.
 
In addition to the restaurant rape charges, the teen is charged with armed carjacking, plus two outstanding warrants on marijuana possession and domestic battery.

-- Thomas Lake, Times staff writer

[Photos above: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Colonel Gary Terry spoke at the Criminal Investigations Division, Gen Yamaguchi, Times] 

One arrested in Apollo Beach restaurant rapes

Sheriff's officials in Hillsborough County say they've arrested one man in connection with the robbery, abduction and rape of two women leaving an Apollo Beach restaurant early Saturday.

Rigoberto Moron Martinez, 20, 1425 Zulia St., in Ruskin, was charged with eight counts of sexual battery, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of armed kidnapping and one count of grand theft auto for his role in the early Saturday attack.

According to an arrest affidavit, Martinez and two other men approached a 24-year-old woman outside The Docks, a bar at 6520 U.S. 41 N,  around 3:30 a.m. and demanded her purse at gunpoint.

Soon after, the second victim - a 31-year-old woman - exited the restaurant and the men forced both women into the 24-year-old's truck. They went for a drive and returned to the bar, where two of the men forced entry into the bar and stole $300 from the register. 

Back in the truck and hands bound with duct tape, the women were driven to an unknown location and raped. the affidavit shows. They were put back in the truck and driven to another location, where the 31-year-old woman was raped again.

Deputies say this photo, captured by an ATM surveillance camera, shows Martinez trying to withdraw money from one of the victim's bank accounts just moments after the attacks.

More developments coming in Apollo Beach rape cases

A news conference has been scheduled for 2 p.m. to announce an additional arrest in the Apollo Beach rapes, authorities said. Please watch This Just In for updates.

Ex-girlfriend in shock over Apollo Beach rape arrest

RUSKIN -- The ex-girlfriend of a Ruskin man charged with the robbery, kidnapping and rape of two Apollo Beach restaurant workers said today that she was shocked by his arrest.

Liliana Castillo, 18, of Ruskin, called her ex-boyfriend, Rigoberto Moron Martinez, a good man and father who always took care of his family. The two broke up Friday, the day before two female employees of The Docks restaurant were abducted and attacked.

"He was always worried about me and the baby," Castillo said, sitting on a couch in the apartment the two shared until recently at 1425 Zulia Court. Their son, 9-month-old Rigoberto Moron Martinez Jr., sat quietly on her lap.

Martinez walked across the U.S. border with his mother and brother about 11 years ago and had no  documentation, his former girlfriend said. He attended East Bay High School but dropped out in ninth grade to work as a welder. They met through Martinez's brother and lived together for four years, she said.

"My mom loved him. All my family loved him. They always said, 'You're never going to find a better man,' " Castillo said. 

Victim's sister: He was definitely the leader

TAMPA -- Both victims of Saturday's rapes in Apollo Beach recognized Rigoberto Moron Martinez as their attacker when shown photographs Wednesday night, the sister of one victim said today.

"He was definitely the leader. The other two were willing to do what he said," said Jacey Laundree, 37, of Peru, N.Y.

Laundree woke her sister up this morning when she heard the news that sheriff's deputies had arrested Martinez in connection with the rapes.

Laundree, who has spoken with her sister several times since Saturday, said the men repeatedly threatened to kill the women before finally letting them go in northern Manatee County.

"I knew I was going to die," the sister, the youngest of two victims, told Laundree.

Authorities probe possible links in restaurant attacks

Authorities in Hillsborough County and St. Petersburg are investigating a possible connection between the sexual assaults of three women who were all attacked while leaving restaurants.

On Aug. 3, three masked, armed men forced their way into the Table in downtown St. Petersburg as a busboy took out the trash. They stole cash, and an employee was sexually assaulted.

Early Saturday in Apollo Beach, three men robbed, abducted and raped two women who were closing a restaurant where they both worked.

"The similarities are three Hispanic males, it's a restaurant and it's early in the morning," said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt. "There are some similarities to our case, and we are investigating that. There's a possibility it's related."

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer