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Tallahassee, FL – After eight long years
on the run two men wanted on charges of Sexual Assault on a Physically Helpless
Victim will finally face justice in a Leon County courtroom. The case began back
in August 2001 when the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) received a call from
the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Emergency Room in regards to a Sexual Battery.
TPD Investigators responded to the hospital where the victim advised that she
had been celebrating her 21st birthday the night before with three male
coworkers and that she had been drinking with the men. The victim advised that
she became sick after drinking alcohol and that she had lain down on a couch in
the living room of the suspect’s apartment. Upon waking the next morning, the
victim discovered that she was nude and suspected that she had been sexually
assaulted. Investigation by the Tallahassee Police Department along with
physical evidence collected at TMH led to a search warrant at Glen Oaks
Apartments. During a search of the residence TPD Investigators located a video
camera which was utilized by the three men to film the sexual assault. On
08/12/2001 TPD Investigators arrested Richard Archer, 19 of Opelocka, FL , Andre
Peter Chin, 21 of Miami, FL and Caple Angelo Palmer, 21 also of Miami, FL and
charged the three men with multiple counts of Sexual Battery with Victim
Physically Helpless, Sexual Assault/Victim over 12 with Special Conditions and
Voyeurism. All three men posted bond on the above charges and where later
released from the Leon County Jail with a date set for trial in the Leon County
Courthouse.
On January 24, 2003, the Tallahassee Police Department contacted the U.S.
Marshals after Andre Chin and Caple Palmer failed to show for a pretrial hearing
and TPD Investigators feared that both men had fled the Tallahassee, Florida
area. US Marshals launched a fugitive investigation in an effort to locate
Palmer and Chin not knowing at the time that the case would span over 8 years
and lead Deputy Marshals on a chase across the United States and into a foreign
country. Deputy Marshals worked countless hours of surveillance, conducted
numerous interviews of family and friends, and utilized every method of
investigation in an attempt to locate the two subjects but could never quiet
catch a break in the case. Due to the fact that Caple Palmer and Andre Chin both
had extensive family ties to Jamaica, investigators always suspected that the
two had fled to the small island nation in order to escape their punishment in
an American court of law. The two fugitives assumed that because they were in
Jamaica that the long arm of the law would not be able to reach across the
waters of the Caribbean to return them to American soil. Little did Palmer and
Chin know at the time that the United States Marshals Service was in the early
stages of developing a working relationship with the Jamaican authorities to
assign Deputy U.S. Marshals to Jamaica to form a joint strike force to locate
and remove American citizens who are wanted in the United States for serious
crimes.
In December 2010, U.S. Marshals assigned to the Jamaican Fugitive Apprehension
Team finally caught a break in the case against Caple Palmer. Marshals
determined that Palmer was living in Jamaica under an alias and that Palmer had
managed to get a Jamaican Drivers License in the fake name. On January 26, 2011
U.S. Marshals along with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force established
surveillance on a house located in the Phoenix Park area of Moneague, St. Ann,
Jamaica. As the officers watched the residence where they suspected that Caple
Palmer had been living under his new assumed identity, a vehicle was observed
arriving at the residence. Inside the vehicle was Andre Chin, Caple Palmer’s
co-defendant, who was also living under an assumed Jamaican identity. U.S.
Marshals and Jamaican authorities quickly apprehended Chin without incident but
Palmer led the officers on an extended foot pursuit through the streets of St.
Ann before finally being wrestled to the ground by pursuing officers. Both men
were charged with possession of false documents by Jamaican authorities and
ordered deported back to the United States. On February 9, 2011 Caple Palmer and
Andre Chin were finally returned to U.S. soil after spending the past eight
years as two of Tallahassee’s most wanted fugitives when they were booked into
the Miami-Dade County Jail by members of the US Marshals Florida Regional
Fugitive Task Force. Palmer and Chin are currently awaiting extradition back to
Tallahassee, Florida were they will finally face a Judge and Jury in a
Tallahassee courtroom. The same courthouse were Palmer and Chin’s co-defendant
Richard Archer was tried and convicted of the Sexual Assault and sentenced to
the Florida Department of Corrections for 16 years, 10 Months, and 15 days on
January 6, 2004.
U.S. Marshal Dennis Williamson stated that the arrest of Caple Palmer and Andre
Chin highlights the great cooperation between the US Marshals Florida Regional
Fugitive Task Force and local area law enforcement to track down and apprehend
those individuals wanted for serious crimes, no matter how far they run. The US
Marshals task force is comprised of Deputy US Marshals who work side by side on
a daily basis with law enforcement officers from the Leon County Sheriff’s
Office, Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office, Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office,
Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Taylor County
Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Tallahassee Police
Department, Perry Police Department, and the Leon County State Attorney’s Office
to locate and apprehend the most violent offenders in the State of Florida.
Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at
http://www.usmarshals.gov
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