Police say three people who went through a horiffic experience at a Southside motel were able to help them identify and arrest the two brothers police believe are responsible.
JSO arrested 32-year-old James Dickerson and 30-year-old Donald Dickerson and have charged them each with attempted murder, armed robbery, arson, carjacking, sexual battery and false imprisonment.
According to a police report, cell phone records show the two women had called and made plans to meet with the suspects just after midnight on Friday, July 19. It says James Dickerson was armed when he knocked on the door and made the women strip naked before he tied them up with bed sheets. The report says he then sexually assaulted both of them several times. As he was doing so, his brother Donald showed up and participated in the assault.
At one point a man showed up at the door and he, too, was ordered to the ground and tied up. Police say he was told that if he moved he'd be killed. The suspects then went back to assaulting the women, shooting one in the head non-fatally when she resisted.
The brothers scoured the room for valuables, taking $400 and a key to a car in the parking lot. They lit the room on fire before they left. The male victim was able to get free and drag the women to safety before the building was totally engulfed in flames.
"There was considerable damaged to the hotel, so he probably saved their lives," says Lt. Rob Schoonover with JSO's homicide unit.
All three victims are expected to survive, though Schoonover says the woman who was shot in the head may suffer from permanent damage. While in the hospital police say the gunshot victim wrote the suspects' names down on a piece of paper and her family gave them to police. The other two victims positively ID'ed both suspects at different times and places in a photo spread.
JSO arrested the brothers Monday night . They deny any involvement in the incident. Police say there is no evidence of prostiution.
Both men have extensive criminal records that date back to the early 2000s.
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