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Murder suspect's past probed
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Although he is a convicted sex offender, the law allowed Freddie Clemons Jr. to live just two blocks from A.J. Ferrell Middle School, where the murder happened.
Clemons served 18 years of a 25-year sentence for breaking into the homes of two elderly women and sexually assaulting them as a 16-year-old in November 1984. He used a knife in at least one of those cases. He was released early because of jail overcrowding.
Today that would be enough to qualify Clemons for sex predator status, meaning closer monitoring and mandatory notification of the community when he moved in. However, the date of those crimes allowed him more freedom.
"The statute says that any offense has to have occurred after Oct. 1 of 1993," said agent Ray Velboom with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "That's when the statute came into play."
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Clemons lived two blocks from Ferrell Middle School. |
Clemons' sentencing occurred more than seven years earlier. The judge in the case said when he completed his sentence, he would have no supervision and no probation rules to follow.
"Once they've completed their probation and parole status, they're not under the control of anybody," said Velboom.
Velboom said there has been some movement in the Florida Legislature to change the law, but it hasn't happened yet.
Clemons appeared before a judge Wednesday morning to face charges in the brutal death of 54-year-old Onoria Suarez-Ramos. She was found slain in a Ferrell Middle School classroom April 23, and police arrested the 36-year-old Clemons May 4.
Police Chief Stephen Hogue said DNA samples at the crime scene were key in Clemons' arrest. A trail of blood from the classroom where Suarez-Ramos was killed led police to the registered sex offender's home.
"As everybody is aware, we have a backlog of DNA cases," said Hogue. "But in the case of heinous crimes like this of murder, the people who do the DNA testing put it on the fast track."
Police say Clemons' blood at the crime scene came from a cut to his knuckle, but investigators aren't sure how he received the injury.
Hogue said Clemons was interviewed among a group of 100 registered sex offenders who live within a three-mile radius of Ferrell.
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