[StBernard] Suspect in 2009 rape caught in Mississippi

[Westley Annis]

Suspect in 2009 rape caught in Mississippi
A 40-year-old man accused of handcuffing and raping a young woman in her
Nicholson Drive home in July 2009 was booked Wednesday into Parish Prison
after he was transported from a prison in Hattiesburg, Miss., where he had
been held on a similar sex-crime charge, a police spokesman said.

Police Cpl. Tommy Stubbs said both city police and Hattiesburg police
identified James Harold Crockett Jr., of Chalmette, as the rapist soon after
similar rape cases were reported in both cities in 2009.

The Hattiesburg rape was reported shortly after the one in Baton Rouge.

"We all got him identified around the same time but they got their hands on
him first," Stubbs said.

Crockett knocked on a 22-year-old woman's apartment door at 5075 Nicholson
Drive on about 12:30 a.m. on July 5, 2009, according to an arrest warrant
issued at the time.

He asked to see the victim's roommate, referring to the roommate by her
first name. Then, he asked if he could use the bathroom, the warrant says.

The victim told police she allowed him inside her apartment because Crockett
"claimed to be a friend of (her) roommate," the warrant says.

Once inside the apartment, Crockett grabbed the victim and, while she was
screaming, began shooting her with a stun gun in her shoulder, wrist, leg
and cheek, the warrant says.

The warrant says Crockett then handcuffed the victim's wrists in front of
her body and handcuffed her wrists to her ankles.

The victim told police once she was handcuffed, Crockett raped her in her
bedroom, the warrant says.

Crockett, 3107 Buffon St., Chalmette, was booked into Parish Prison on
counts of aggravated rape, aggravated battery and false imprisonment with a
dangerous weapon, booking records show.