Suspected serial rapist arrested after three decades

A 68-year-old man is behind bars on $1 million bail in connection with multiple sexual assaults in the mid- to late 1990s — years after he was released from prison in another rape.

Calvin Dumas was arrested June 28 after advances in DNA testing matched samples from an attack in 1998, Sheriff T.K. Waters said Thursday. That led to DNA matches to other cases a few years earlier, Waters said.

“Investigators have positively identified Dumas as the perpetrator of sexual battery cases from 1995 and 1996 respectively,” Waters said. “Dumas committed these crimes after a largely consistent pattern. He would break into a home at night and sexually batter a woman in that residence.”

At a news conference Thursday, State Attorney Melissa Nelson called Dumas “every woman’s worst nightmare.”

“In the ’90s, he broke into women’s homes in the Brentwood and Eastside at night, held his victims at knifepoint, covered their faces and raped them,” Nelson said. “He targeted single mothers. He told them that if they made any noise, or reported the crime to police, he would kill them or kill their children.”

Dumas had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1973 for raping a neighbor, Nelson said. He served eight years and was released.

In 2016, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement then analyzed DNA from an assault victim in 1998, according to Dumas’ arrest report. It matched a profile from two others in 1995 and 1996, the report said. Recent advances in DNA testing led police to identify the suspect, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, the sheriff said.

Waters said Dumas was “pretty surprised” when he was arrested at 6:30 p.m. June 28 at a Westside restaurant. The Sheriff’s Office released bodycam video of the arrest.

Police believe Dumas may be connected to more sexual assaults. Anyone who believes they are a victim is asked to contact the sexual assault unit at 904-630-0500.

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