DNA evidence allowed in rape trial

TAMPA - Her head was beaten to the concrete so violently she suffered a stroke, losing her sight, her speech and her ability to care for herself. Friends even have to help her pet her beloved dog, telling her, "but she's still your gracie...".

It's clear then that she won't be able to testify against the teen charged with raping and beating her, as she stopped to drop off her library books.

"Kenrick Morris," called out the court clerk. Morris's Lawyers were hoping Judge Chet Tharpe would throw out incriminating statements made to deputies, along with the DNA that prosecutors say ties him to not one, but two rapes.

They lost, as Tharpe announced he was denying all but one of the defense motions, ordering prosecutors not to use a video of Morris admitting to his mother in an interview room, that he was at the library that night, but clearing them to use the DNA and statements.

Devastating to the defense says ex-Prosecutor Eddie Suarez.

"Being able to present to a jury statistical evidence that makes it nearly an impossibility that someone else committed the crime is a very, very strong piece of evidence," Suarez said.

But it wasn't only the lost battle trying to suppress that DNA and those statements, the prosecution apparently has a new strategy. Since deputies say Morris' DNA also matches the 2007 rape of a Tampa day care worker, the plan is to try him for the earlier attack first. Why?

"We have a victim that will be able to testify in that case," says Prosecutor Mike Sinacore. "And we intend to go first on that."

"The emotional power of that testimony, of having someone being able to tell an ordeal like the one she suffered, that's a very powerful piece of evidence," sais ex-prosecutor Suarez.

There's also the possibility of using the daycare victim in the library case, since that victim can't tell the jury what happened. The defense, meanwhile, is hoping to move the trial out of Tampa, claiming intense pretrial publicity will deny Morris a fair jury.

They also hope to exploit the outpouring of help the victim has received from the greater Tampa Bay Community. Morris Attorney Maria Pavlidis telling the Judge, "it's not only pretrial publicity in this case, because we have a combination of that and also the efforts within the community with regard to fundraising to the alleged victim in this case."

Arguments over change of venue are set for July; the first trial is set for late August.