Convicted child abuser followed 13-year-old girl before leaving her to die in utility closet of apartment complex, sheriff says

Florida deputies have arrested a man for allegedly stabbing a 13-year-old girl and leaving her fatally wounded in a utility closet of an apartment building.

Jerry Dorisme, 28, is charged with first-degree felony murder, Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters in a press conference on Friday. Authorities have shared a GoFundMe campaign to support the family of the victim, Rose Dieujuste, 13.

“Rose’s murder shook our community and our agency,” Mina said. “Any time a child is murdered, we all collectively grieve. I’m a father. Our detectives are all parents, and this is very, very hard on them, and of course, the community. And we can’t even imagine the pain and anguish that Rose’s family and loved ones are going through right now.”

Mina told reporters that the 13-year-old was “senselessly and brutally murdered” on the July 4th at the apartment complex where she lived, the Palmetto at Lakeside in Orlando.

Investigators believe she was on her way to visit a friend at another building at the complex. That was when Dorisme allegedly attacked her. Rose’s friend found her cell phone and shoes in a staircase in the apartment complex. She reached out to the teenager’s family. One of Rose’s relatives knocked on doors to find her until discovering her in a utility closet, stabbed and partially naked. Deputies were called to the scene. Barely alive, the 13-year-old remained unresponsive despite efforts to perform CPR and first aid. Rose succumbed to her injuries at the hospital.

The sheriff’s office searched for the killer. Detectives found packaging of a 12-inch knife in the closet, Mina said. Authorities think this blade was the murder weapon.

According to the sheriff, witnesses described seeing a “heavy-set” man leaving the building where Rose was found. Mina described surveillance footage as showing this individual — Dorisme — following Rose at a distance before the murder. Video from a nearby store also showed him purchasing the knife, the sheriff said.

Authorities released part of the apartment-complex footage in a bid to find the then unidentified suspect. Dorisme’s own father called in to identify him, Mina said. The suspect was arrested on Thursday night.

The defendant, who Mina said is from Haiti and has been undocumented in the United States since 2008, pleaded no contest in a child abuse case in 2021 and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Charges, including lewd or lascivious molestation, were dropped.

He last wound up on the radar of Orange County deputies on June 18. Mina told reporters that they received a call about a man walking down the street with a knife. They managed to get him to drop it, but he punched three deputies and was subjected to the state’s Baker Act mental health law, the sheriff said. Records show an ongoing case for one count of resisting an officer with violence, and three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer.

The investigation is ongoing, with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement providing support. Dorisme did not resist in his arrest on Thursday, Mina said. The sheriff suggested that the defendant was familiar with the apartment complex, based on having lived in the area and frequented a local barber. Locals said he had been seen watching girls.

“They were definitely concerned about him,” Mina said.

Dorisme is charged with first-degree felony murder. He had his first appearance in court on Friday, records show.

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