MANATEE — Local prosecutors are going to have plenty of time to make their case against Delmer Smith III, accused of rape and home invasion attacks in at least four cases where detectives say they found his DNA in Sarasota.
That’s because a federal judge has sentenced him to two years in prison for violating his probation on a 1995 federal bank robbery conviction.
Last week, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office officials charged Smith with several counts of armed home invasion robbery, false imprisonment and sexual battery in the beatings of five women in their homes.
Investigators with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the Bradenton Police Department also believe he is a suspect in as many as four similar attacks here. Smith is a suspect in a total of 11 attacks in both counties, including the beating death of a Sarasota woman in her home.
Smith has not been ruled out as a suspect in the killing of Kathleen Briles in her Terra Ceia home, according to Manatee Sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow.
With Sarasota prosecutors still investigating their cases against Smith, he first faced a federal judge for violating his probation after being released from federal prison in September 2008 for a Michigan bank robbery.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Smith with the violation stemming from his arrest after an Aug. 14 fight in a Venice bar. After Venice police arrested Smith on a federal warrant, a search revealed he had a gun. Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputies then found property in a storage unit he was using that held property stolen from at least four home invasion attacks.
Last Friday, the victim in the bar fight, as well as members of the Venice Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified against Smith in federal court. Based on the testimony, a judge sentenced Smith to two years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Steve Cole.
Smith still faces a federal charge of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, for which he faces 15 years to life in prison, Cole said. Smith will remain in federal custody until the gun charge is resolved.
Sarasota Assistant State Attorney Earl Varn said Smith will be extradited to Sarasota to face the charges in the home invasion attacks, but most likely not before his federal charges are resolved. Smith’s federal charges have allowed local authorities to continue building their cases, knowing he will not be released from federal custody. He is being held in the Pinellas County jail on the federal hold.
“We will bring him back,” Varn said. “But we will bring him back when we want to bring him back.”
Smith is also facing a battery charge stemming from the bar fight for which he is expected to arraigned today. It’s unlikely he will appear in court, Varn said.
The investigation into Smith by local authorities proved controversial after the FBI acknowledged the agency had taken his DNA while he was in prison in 2008, but never entered it into federal databases used by local enforcement. FBI officials said his DNA had not been entered because of a backlog estimated at nearly 290,000 samples of offender’s DNA.
In February, Sarasota sheriff’s detectives entered DNA from two home invasions found to have come from the same person, but did not get a hit. The attacks went on for four more months before authorities captured Smith after the bar fight.
Detectives requested Smith’s DNA be placed on the fast track for entry into the database after they found the property from the home invasions. FBI officials entered it, and his DNA taken in prison matched the DNA recovered from the crime scenes.
The revelations stemming from Smith’s case brought U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, to call on the FBI to expedite the entry of DNA of violent offenders into databases. The congressman will be meeting with the FBI next week to discuss finding ways to prioritize the entry of DNA of violent offenders, Buchanan’s spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts said Thursday.
Robert Napper, law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024.
