Tampa man arrested in stabbing deaths of 2 women, police say
A 40-year-old Tampa man is facing first-degree murder charges in connection to the slayings of two women, according to the Tampa Police Department.
The body of Linda Harris was found in an abandoned home in the 1800 block of East Sligh Avenue on Sept. 27. The house was set for demolition, and workers found the 54-year-old Harris’ partially clothed body during a walk-through that morning.
The body showed signs of upper body trauma, and the medical examiner’s office ruled Harris’ death a homicide, the agency said in a news release Thursday.
About five weeks later, Jenny DeLeon’s body was found in Tampa’s Sulphur Springs area. The 25-year-old woman’s body was discovered outside a home near 9th Street North and Fairbanks Avenue around 6 a.m. Nov. 2.
No details of DeLeon’s death were released Thursday, but police said her death also was ruled a homicide.
Damien Marshall was identified as a potential suspect in DeLeon’s death, according to a court document filed Thursday by the Office of the State Attorney 13th Judicial Circuit.
Video surveillance near the crime scene showed DeLeon meeting a man, the document said. A search conducted in a facial recognition database identified Marshall as a possible match to the man in the video. Detectives brought the surveillance video to Marshall’s probation officer, who positively identified him.
Marshall told police he was the man in the surveillance video, and admitted to walking with DeLeon to the place where her body later was discovered, according to the document. The two engaged in a sex act, but DeLeon was uninjured and with someone Marshall didn’t know when he left, he told police.
In the same interview, Marshall told detectives he had met up with Harris — the woman whose body was found Sept. 27 — at a convenience store in the Sulphur Springs area, and said they walked together to a house on Sligh Avenue. Police showed Marshall crime scene photos of the house where Harris’ body was found and said that he recognized the location.
Marshall admitted to engaging in sex acts with Harris, and to being at the abandoned home where her body was found, according to the document. Again, however, Marshall told police he left Harris, uninjured, with unknown people.
Marshall told the police that both women had died from stab wounds — information that had not been released to the public, the document said.
Evidence collected from the crime scene where Harris’ body was found was submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, authorities said. Marshall’s DNA was determined to be a possible contributor to samples of mixed DNA profiles submitted to the department. On one item, the mixed DNA profile is about 120 billion times more likely to occur if the DNA came from Harris and Marshall than from Harris and another person, according to the document.
A Mickey Mouse belt police found in Marshall’s home after getting a search warrant tested positive for the presence of blood, police said. Harris was determined to have been a likely contributor to a DNA sample taken from the belt, according to the document.
Marshall’s DNA also was found to be a possible contributor to two out of the five DNA samples taken from the belt, police said. In one sample, his DNA was not found. In the final two, the results were inconclusive.
In a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report in the DeLeon homicide case, DNA testing found that Marshall was a possible contributor to a mixed DNA sample. The DNA in that sample likely came from DeLeon, Marshall and an unknown third person, the court document said.
Marshall has been in jail since Nov. 16 on charges including failing to report a change of address as a sex offender and failing to report a change of vehicle as a sex offender, police said, and first-degree murder charges now have been added.
The investigations are ongoing.
This is a developing story. Stay with tampabay.com for updates.
