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Finally some closure..this case was tough one in the South Florida Jamaican community..
<span style="font-weight: bold">DNA links Florida prison inmate to Miramar triple homicide, police say</span>
Source: Sun-Sentinel.com
By Danielle A. Alvarez and Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel
MIRAMAR—
The armed robber could have targeted any South Florida house on any street. He chose the two-story home in the 9500 block of Encino Street, seemingly at random.
It was 11 p.m. on a warm summer night.
Within minutes, two women and their teenage children, one all aglow over her upcoming 16th birthday party, were bound with duct tape and shot in the head, execution-style. Only one of the four victims lived, her sight and hearing impaired.
Video: Friends, neighbors help tornado victims
The killer's take for this chilling, brutal crime: $80.
That was more then two years ago. On Thursday, police announced they had solved the triple murder that horrified the placid neighborhood where it occurred. The killer, they said, was a hard-bitten felon with a lengthy record, whose DNA had been traced to the duct tape.
A "ruthless animal" was how Detective Steve Toyota described Kevin Lavon Pratt, 33, who is now serving a year on a Miami-Dade County conviction for fleeing and eluding a police officer. Pratt had been scheduled to be released from North Florida's Marion Correctional Institution in nine days.
Now, "that's not going to happen," Toyota said.
In interviews and records, investigators detailed the horrific night of Aug. 16, 2009, when the mothers and their children fatally encountered a gun-wielding intruder.
Camille Hamilton, now 41, was married to Eustace Hamilton, a reggae singer known as Thriller U. She and her daughter, Nekitta, 15, had been visiting from Jamaica for two weeks while shopping for the teen's Sweet 16 party. They were staying with Faith Bisasor, 49, an emergency room nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and her son Davion Bishop, 15, a Stranahan High School honors student so smart his friends called him "the computer."
According to a sworn police affidavit, Hamilton, who had been out running errands, arrived at Bisasor's house around 11 p.m. Pratt then allegedly surprised her from behind, leveled a gun and demanded money. Hamilton refused.
The robber then ordered her into the house where the other three victims were. Hamilton gave him $80 from her purse. Still, the affidavit said, the gunman herded all four into an upstairs master bedroom and forced Bisasor to bind the others' hands and feet with duct tape. The man set his pistol down and began to tape up Bisasor as well.
In apparent desperation, the bound Hamilton managed to crawl to the pistol, raise it, and fire two rounds at the robber. She missed.
"Her hands were duct taped in the front so, you know, it's an awkward position to try and handle a gun and fire a gun," Toyota said.
Unscathed, Pratt allegedly snatched the gun from Hamilton, dragged her into a hallway and threatened to rape her. Then, police said, he shot her in the side of the head.
Hamilton awoke 14 hours later. Blinded by her own dried blood, she located her cellphone and somehow was able to punch the redial function to dial the last number she had phoned. The call reached a friend, who dialed 911.
When police arrived at the house on Encino Street, they found Hamilton in the doorway, alive, and the three other victims upstairs. All were dead of gunshot wounds to the head.
Hamilton was left partially deaf and partially blind. Police for a time were left with no suspect.
But last June, taking advantage of a new form of forensic testing, investigators managed to link DNA found on the duct tape to Pratt, a transient who has spent much of his life in and out of prison following arrests for offenses including armed robbery, assault, and aggravated battery.
Last month, a sobbing Hamilton identified Pratt in a lineup at the North Florida prison. She then had an unusual request.
Read the rest of the story at : Sun-Sentinel.com
<span style="font-weight: bold">DNA links Florida prison inmate to Miramar triple homicide, police say</span>
Source: Sun-Sentinel.com
By Danielle A. Alvarez and Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel
MIRAMAR—
The armed robber could have targeted any South Florida house on any street. He chose the two-story home in the 9500 block of Encino Street, seemingly at random.
It was 11 p.m. on a warm summer night.
Within minutes, two women and their teenage children, one all aglow over her upcoming 16th birthday party, were bound with duct tape and shot in the head, execution-style. Only one of the four victims lived, her sight and hearing impaired.
Video: Friends, neighbors help tornado victims
The killer's take for this chilling, brutal crime: $80.
That was more then two years ago. On Thursday, police announced they had solved the triple murder that horrified the placid neighborhood where it occurred. The killer, they said, was a hard-bitten felon with a lengthy record, whose DNA had been traced to the duct tape.
A "ruthless animal" was how Detective Steve Toyota described Kevin Lavon Pratt, 33, who is now serving a year on a Miami-Dade County conviction for fleeing and eluding a police officer. Pratt had been scheduled to be released from North Florida's Marion Correctional Institution in nine days.
Now, "that's not going to happen," Toyota said.
In interviews and records, investigators detailed the horrific night of Aug. 16, 2009, when the mothers and their children fatally encountered a gun-wielding intruder.
Camille Hamilton, now 41, was married to Eustace Hamilton, a reggae singer known as Thriller U. She and her daughter, Nekitta, 15, had been visiting from Jamaica for two weeks while shopping for the teen's Sweet 16 party. They were staying with Faith Bisasor, 49, an emergency room nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and her son Davion Bishop, 15, a Stranahan High School honors student so smart his friends called him "the computer."
According to a sworn police affidavit, Hamilton, who had been out running errands, arrived at Bisasor's house around 11 p.m. Pratt then allegedly surprised her from behind, leveled a gun and demanded money. Hamilton refused.
The robber then ordered her into the house where the other three victims were. Hamilton gave him $80 from her purse. Still, the affidavit said, the gunman herded all four into an upstairs master bedroom and forced Bisasor to bind the others' hands and feet with duct tape. The man set his pistol down and began to tape up Bisasor as well.
In apparent desperation, the bound Hamilton managed to crawl to the pistol, raise it, and fire two rounds at the robber. She missed.
"Her hands were duct taped in the front so, you know, it's an awkward position to try and handle a gun and fire a gun," Toyota said.
Unscathed, Pratt allegedly snatched the gun from Hamilton, dragged her into a hallway and threatened to rape her. Then, police said, he shot her in the side of the head.
Hamilton awoke 14 hours later. Blinded by her own dried blood, she located her cellphone and somehow was able to punch the redial function to dial the last number she had phoned. The call reached a friend, who dialed 911.
When police arrived at the house on Encino Street, they found Hamilton in the doorway, alive, and the three other victims upstairs. All were dead of gunshot wounds to the head.
Hamilton was left partially deaf and partially blind. Police for a time were left with no suspect.
But last June, taking advantage of a new form of forensic testing, investigators managed to link DNA found on the duct tape to Pratt, a transient who has spent much of his life in and out of prison following arrests for offenses including armed robbery, assault, and aggravated battery.
Last month, a sobbing Hamilton identified Pratt in a lineup at the North Florida prison. She then had an unusual request.
Read the rest of the story at : Sun-Sentinel.com
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