Deputies in Florida have detained a guy for reportedly stabbing a 13-year-old girl and killing her in an apartment building’s utility closet.
Jerry Dorisme, 28, is charged with first-degree criminal murder, Orange County Sheriff John Mina announced at a press conference on Friday. Authorities have launched a GoFundMe page to help the victim, Rose Dieujuste, 13, and her family.
“Rose’s murder shook our community and our agency,” Mina told me. “Every time a child is slain, we all weep together. I am a father. Our investigators are all parents, and this is incredibly difficult for them and, of course, the community. And we can’t comprehend the agony and anguish that Rose’s family and loved ones are experiencing right now.”
Mina informed reporters that the 13-year-old was “senselessly and brutally murdered” on July 4th at her apartment complex, the Palmetto at Lakeside in Orlando.
Investigators suspect she was on her way to see a buddy at another building in the complex. Dorisme is accused of attacking her at that time. Rose’s buddy discovered her cell phone and shoes on a stairwell at the apartment complex. She reached out to the teenager’s family. Rose’s relative knocked on doors in search of her, only to find her stabbed and partially naked in a utility closet. Deputies were dispatched to the site. The 13-year-old was barely alive and remained unconscious despite CPR and first aid measures. Rose died from her injuries in the hospital.
The sheriff’s office searched for the murderer. Mina reported that detectives discovered packing for a 12-inch knife in the closet. Authorities believe this blade was the murder weapon.
According to the sheriff, witnesses reported seeing a “heavy-set” man leave the building where Rose was discovered. Mina reported how surveillance footage showed this person — Dorisme — following Rose at a distance before the murder. According to the sheriff, a video from a nearby business showed him acquiring the knife.
Authorities released a portion of the apartment complex film in an attempt to locate the then-unidentified culprit. Dorisme’s father called in to identify him, Mina stated. The suspect was detained on Thursday night.
The defendant, who Mina claimed is from Haiti and has been undocumented in the United States since 2008, pled no guilty to a child abuse charge in 2021 and was sentenced to a year and a day in jail. Charges of lewd or lascivious molestation were withdrawn.
He last appeared on the radar of Orange County deputies on June 18. Mina informed reporters that they had received a call about a man strolling along the street with a knife. They were able to persuade him to drop it, but he assaulted three deputies and was charged under the state’s Baker Act mental health law, the sheriff said. According to records, there is an ongoing case involving one count of violently resisting an officer and three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer as per Lawandcrime.
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The inquiry is still underway, with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement assisting. Dorisme did not resist arrest on Thursday, Mina stated. The sheriff suggested that the defendant was familiar with the apartment complex since he had lived there and visited a local barbershop. Locals claimed he had been observed watching girls.
“They were concerned about him,” Mina told me.
Dorisme was charged with first-degree criminal murder. He made his initial court appearance on Friday, according to documents.