I-Team Exclusive: New Information In Case Of Suspect Charged With Rape
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An Exclusive CBS 3 I-Team Investigation now reveals police are trying to determine if a suspect, arrested for a February 1st rape in North Philadelphia, may be a serial killer who could be responsible for the murders of as many as three women in Florida.
The suspect, Jimmie Mosley, was held for trial Thursday, on charges he held a woman captive for six hours along a North Philadelphia street, putting a plastic bag over her head, beating her with a brick, and choking her with a belt as he raped her.
The victim, taking the witness stand at the Criminal Justice Center, testified Mosley not only threatened to kill her, but claimed he murdered other women.
"He said, (expletive), I killed six people. What makes you think you won't be the seventh?"
Assistant Chief District Attorney Erin O'Brien says the victim believed she would have been killed, if not for two 39th District Police Officers who heard her screams, chasing Mosley and arresting him.
Sources tell CBS 3 Mosley's DNA was a match with that found at the scene of a rape murder in Jacksonville, Florida. And the sources indicate investigators in Florida also want to know if he might have been involved with two other murders there.
The I-Team has learned that police believe Mosley left Florida around the time of the last murder, traveling up the East Coast, staying for a time in Delaware, and in Trenton, N.J., before he was arrested for rape, February 1st, in North Philadelphia.
Two Jacksonville, Florida police investigators were in the courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center Thursday afternoon attending the preliminary hearing at which Mosley was held for trial in $1 million bail.
Mosley made no statements during the hearing and showed no reaction. His attorney declined comment.
Sources tell the I-Team that Philadelphia Police have alerted police departments along the East Coast trying to learn more about his travels in the months before he arrived here, and any unsolved crimes.
The I-Team has learned Philadelphia Police have also researched unsolved crimes, including rapes, and the deaths of two women in the neighborhood near where Mosley was arrested.
So far the suspect has not been linked to or charged with any crimes beyond the rape.
Mosley's court history shows a record of arrests in Florida going back more than two decades including a conviction for aggravated assault. He is classified in court records as a "career offender".
Officially, Philadelphia Police and the District Attorney's Office decline comment on whether Mosley is under investigation for additional crimes.