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A man who prosecutors say had a distinct pattern of sexual assaults has been connected to two other sex crimes.

Jermichael Lindsey was charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 23-year-old woman in October. Now, almost a year later, the 32-year-old is facing additional charges in two strikingly similar cases

He is a suspect in two other sexual assaults.

https://www.tallahassee.com/gcdn/-mm-/52b72b3bb2ec05a6e6bd33d30932b588ee5f0ad8/c=0-30-320-211/local/-/media/2016/09/13/Tallahassee/Tallahassee/636093674527231281-Jermicahel-Lindsey-32.jpg?width=320&height=181&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

Court records filed Thursday say Lindsey, who is being held in the Leon County Jail, is connected to the rape of a woman at her Victory Garden Drive home and another woman at a Stuckey Avenue apartment complex.

On Sept. 11, 2015, the woman reported she returned to her Victory Drive home from dinner and was removing items from the back seat of her car when she was attacked from behind.

Her assailant struck her with what she believed was a handgun and told her if she kept struggling he would shoot her.

After the two tussled for a few more minutes, her assailant guided her to the front door of her home and forced her inside. She was blindfolded, her hands were bound with tape and she was raped.

As in previous sexual assaults investigators say Lindsey is connected with, he told the woman he and others had been watching her, court records say. He again used tape to bind the victim and said he was prepared to kill her.

The woman reported her cell phone had been stolen.

Tallahassee Police investigators were able to connect Lindsey to the crime by finding the phone, which had been used to make calls and send texts following the assault.

Lindsey’s wife and the mother of his children had the phone, court records say.

She told police she bought it from a drug user on the street for $20 but had smashed the phone when police called her on the handset during their investigation.

Investigators were able to determine the phone was in the area of the victim’s home and left within the 25-minute time frame she reported to police the assault happened.

Two days later, a woman was attacked near a Stuckey Avenue apartment building, court records say.

The woman, who waited two weeks to report the assault, told investigators she was contacted as an escort on her Backpage.com advertisement.

When she arrived, a man jumped out of the bushes with a handgun.

Holding the gun to her head, he forced her into a dark alley along the side of the building where, court records say, she was assaulted.

For weeks after the attack, the woman said the man who had contacted her online continued to try to coerce her over the phone to return to the apartment complex.

She provided investigators with several phone numbers of people who had contacted her in response to her escort service ad.

Based on the frequency of contact between one of the numbers and known associates of Lindsey, as well as the same phone’s location to his known residence and during the Sept. 11 sexual assault, investigators charged him with both sexual assaults.

Lindsey faces three additional charges of sexual battery with a firearm, two counts each of kidnapping to facilitate a felony, aggravated battery and several counts of burglary.

The phones were key to charging Lindsey in the additional sexual assaults, said Assistant State Attorney Lorena Vollrath-Bueno. Also, they may likely be the key to the other two cases.

But the similarities among the crimes was also a factor. In 2012, Lindsey was acquitted of a similar crime to which he was linked when his DNA profile was found at the scene.

Kidnapping, rape suspect acquitted of similar sex crime in 2012

Since then, he has learned how to avoid detection, Vollrath-Bueno said. He wore a condom in the Sept. 13, 2015, attack. He told the victims misleading information.

But the crimes were similar enough to warrant a closer look, she said.

“It’s very rare where we have somebody who is a serial rapist a stranger rapist,” Vollrath-Bueno said. “His pattern of doing things is unique to him.

“We have all these victims who have been waiting for this to happen,” she continued. “We’re dealing with someone who is educated in the way the system works.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/09/13/serial-rapist-could-connected-five-assaults/90306870/

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