Jury finds Kendrick Morris guilty of raping daycare worker

TAMPA - After nearly four hours of deliberation, a jury found Kendrick Morris guilty in the rape of a daycare worker.

Morris was found guilty of all five charges brought against him, with two of them combined, including burglary with assault or battery with a weapon, attempted robbery using a deadly weapon, sexual battery and attempted sexual battery.

Before the the jury deliberated, 19-year-old Morris sat quietly during the trial.

In the closing statement, Assistant State Attorney Mike Sinacore reminded the jury of how the state believes DNA evidence taken from the 62-year-old woman who was raped at the Clair Mel Childrens Lighthouse daycare three years ago is an exact match to the 19-year-old man.

“This is the rapist. Kendrick Morris, the defendant in this case,” Sincaore said, while standing next to Morris and pointing at him.

Sinacore also reminded the jury of Wednesday's testimony from Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Lab Analyst Erika Smith. She explained that the odds of the DNA evidence matching Morris, matched someone else's were "One in 6.8 quintillion Caucasions, one in 320 quadrillion African Americans, and one in 2.2 quintillion southeastern Hispanics."

A quintillion, she said, has 18 zeroes after the first number.

Sinacore held up a poster witn that number, to show the jury how little of a chance there is that the DNA match doesn't belong to Morris.

In her closing statement, Assistant Public Defender Maria Pavlidis told jurors "The state has done a good job here today of putting up a bunch of smoke screens, trying to make the evidence fit the way that they want it to,"

“You promise that you can follow the rules and you promise you can do so without sympathy towards someone and any anger towards anyone,” she went on to say.

Pavlidis reiterated what fellow public defender Rocky Brancato addressed on the first day of the trial - that the DNA was contaminated and should be questioned. "What you didn't hear, ladies and gentlemen, throughout the course of this case," Pavlidis told them, "Is how those items of evidence were handled before they got to FDLE. We know they sat in peoples' cars several times. We don't know if they were handled with gloves. We don't know how those items went from the car to FDLE."

However, the jury, who had been deliberating since 12:15 p.m., ruled against Morris.