OCALA, Fla. — An Ocala man was jailed Friday for a nearly decade-old sex attack on a 13-year-old girl in Marion County after a DNA match.
- Devardrick Antoine Bell arrested
- Victim saved condom from 2011
- Bell held without bond in Marion
Devardrick Antoine Bell, 28, is being held without bond in the Marion County Jail on one count of sexual battery of a juvenile, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced.
The 13-year-old girl saved the condom used by her attacker on October 13, 2011 in a sealable plastic bag.
Investigators obtained a DNA sample from Bell after a recent drug arrest in Ocala, officials say. That sample matched the DNA from the 2011 attack, investigators said.
In that case, the girl told investigators she was going home after a walk when a male she didn’t know followed her inside the Ocala house, forced her into her father’s room, and attacked her.
Officials sent the DNA collected from the condom into a database, but there were no hits at the time.
Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement contacted Marion County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Sgt. Mike Mongeluzzo about a DNA hit in the 2011 case. Mongeluzzo was the lead detective in that case at the time.
On April 13, Inspector Erik Dice, the current lead detective on the case, submitted a probable cause warrant for Bell’s arrest.
“Inspector Dice made contact with Bell, who agreed to meet with investigators at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, but Bell did not show up,” the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Friday.
He surrendered at the jail Friday.
