Man Helps In Arrest Of Suspect In Rapes

WINTER HAVEN | Rick Brewer said he didn't think much about the guy standing near to him at the Wal-Mart in southeastern Winter Haven in June until his 20-year-old son said something.

"Logan said, 'Dad, that's the guy,'<0x200A>" Brewer said Thursday. "He was so adamant that this was the guy, it was worth checking out."

Logan Brewer's insistence paid off.

Rick Brewer, 45, followed "the guy" to the parking lot, got the license number off his car and reported it to police, who checked it out and later arrested Edwin G. Mejia-Zapata, 25, on seven counts of rape and two counts of armed burglary.

Court records show Mejia-Zapata's DNA matched that found at the scene of two sexual assaults committed in the Brewer's Winter Haven neighborhood.

"I'm just glad we could get that guy off the streets," he said. "I think I just did what everybody should do."

TIP 'CRACKED CASE'

W.J. Martin, chief of criminal investigations with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, said the information cracked the case.

"Without this tip, we would have been sitting around wondering when this guy was going to hit again," he said Thursday. "He would not have stopped. Based on his pattern, he would have continued until he got caught."

Winter Haven police had been investigating three rapes in the southeastern area of the city - two of them at the Verandahs at Reeves Lake, a small community of 78 duplex villas.

An armed, masked assailant forced his way into a single woman's home on Feb. 8 and assaulted her three times. Court records show they matched Mejia-Zapata's DNA with evidence in that attack.

Four months later, on June 26, a single woman at the other end of the only street in the Verandahs was attacked, this time by a masked intruder who'd broken a window to get in. The victim had taken a shower and was in bed reading when the assailant came into her room.

Police have accused Mejia-Zapata of raping her four times. Records show they identified his DNA from blood on the broken window near the front door, police said.

Authorities are holding Mejia-Zapata of 7183 Summit Drive, Winter Haven, in the Polk County Jail without bail.

FAMILY HAD HELPED ONE VICTIM

After the second attack in the Verandahs, the victim ran into the street for help. A visitor leaving the Brewers' house saw her and called the family for assistance, Brewer said. His son, Logan, came down to help.

"He was the one who talked to her," Brewer said. "He stayed with her and heard her description of this guy. I was at home asleep and didn't know what was going on until he and my wife came home from her (the victim's) house. They were both really shaken by what had happened. I think that's why Logan had such a keen awareness when we were in Wal-Mart. He had emotional connection to what happened."

Brewer and his son, who left July 4 for the Marines' officer candidate school at Quantico, Va., went to the Wal-Mart on Cypress Gardens Boulevard the evening after the attack to buy a bike.

"When I first walked in, (the suspect) walked in front of me," Brewer said. "Logan and I just looked at each other, knowing that the guy fit the description. Then, coming back from getting the bike, Logan said 'Did you notice the bandage?' It had caught my eye because I'm a basketball coach, and I notice injuries like that. I noticed that it was a homemade bandage - like he'd gone into CVS, bought some gauze and wrapped it all around his hand - the whole roll.

Brewer said he paid for the bike and waited for his son to check out, all with Mejia-Zapata standing a couple of feet away.

"He was just standing there, like he was just hanging out," Brewer said. "He didn't seem bothered by anything."

He said the man was wearing baggy shorts, a dark T-shirt and the bandage on his hand.

"I was thinking that could be the guy," Brewer said, "then my son asked me, 'Dad, did you really look at that guy?' I wasn't as convinced as Logan, but since the time he was a little guy, he's had this keen sense and awareness about what's going on around him.

Brewer said he told his son to take the bike to their truck while he followed the man to his car to get his tag number. He said he called the Winter Haven Police Department with the information that Friday night, about 24 hours after the attack.

The following Tuesday, he talked to sheriff's detectives about it. By this time, residents in the Verandahs said they'd grown frustrated with the Winter Haven police investigation and sought information about the case from the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Winter Haven city commissioners said this week they trusted the Police Department released as much information as possible without compromising the investigation and wouldn't seek policy changes about the way information is released.

INVESTIGATORS NEEDED LEADS

Martin said leads in the rape cases had been slim.

"We hadn't been receiving very many leads at all to that point," he said. "This tip made all the difference."

He said they'd been looking at lawn crews and other service workers who'd been on the property, but nothing had led them to Mejia-Zapata.

When they received Brewer's tip, he said, it was worth following.

"He was potentially Hispanic, so he rose to the level of suspicion and at least needed to be eliminated. But the odds were he wasn't the only Hispanic guy running around Winter Haven with a wounded arm. The odds were slim that this was going to be our guy, but it turned out to be a critical break. This shows how important it is to get the information out there so people can be paying attention."

While sexual assaults aren't uncommon in Polk County, Martin said, most victims know their assailants.

"It's pretty rare to see this kind of crime," he said. "It's been years since we've had a serial rapist who forced his way into strangers' houses like that. It's not something we were going to take lightly."

Once detectives identified Mejia-Zapata as a suspect, they persuaded him to submit to an oral swab test for DNA.

During the weeks since the June 26 attack, they waited for the lab report for confirmation. When that came back, they arrested Mejia-Zapata, a contract maintenance worker at Cypress Gardens, at his home Monday. He was living about 2 1/2 miles from where the victims lived.

Brewer said he learned of the arrest when his wife saw a news report Tuesday.

"She called me at work and told me they'd arrested the Wal-Mart guy," Brewer said. "I can't wait to tell my son because I don't think he knows yet. I've sent him a letter because I can't call him."

Martin said he's going to recommend Brewer receive the $10,000 reward the Sheriff's Office had offered for information leading to an arrest in this case.

The Heartland CrimeStoppers has offered a reward as well, said Wayne Cross, the agency's executive director.

"We'll go as high as $2,000," he said, "and I think that's what we'll do in this case."

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]