Florida spring break gang rape alleged; third college student arrested

A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the gang rape of a woman on a Florida beach just steps away from crowds of spring break revelers, officials announced Wednesday.

Middle Tennessee State University student George Davon Kennedy, 21, was arrested in Georgia’s DeKalb County, according to the Bay County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office.

Kennedy, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was arrested on suspicion of being a principal to sexual assault by multiple perpetrators, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Two other college students suspected of gang-raping the 19-year-old woman were arrested last week, charged with sexual battery and suspended from their college, Troy University in Alabama, authorities said.

The attack took place “in broad daylight” on Panama City Beach in the Florida Panhandle sometime between March 10 and 12, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen told reporters last week.

“Within 10 feet of where this happened, there’s hundreds, hundreds of people standing there, watching, looking, seeing, hearing what’s going on,” McKeithen said.

Delonte Martistee, 22, of Bainbridge, Ga., and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, of Mobile, Ala., are the other suspects. It is unclear whether Kennedy knew them.

The attack on the beach was captured on cellphone video, which was used to track down the suspects, authorities said.

Troy has suspended Martistee and Calhoun, the university announced Sunday, adding that one of them was an athlete and had been removed from the track team. The Troy Athletics website shows that Martistee did jumps for the team.

McKeithen said the attack was “probably one of the most disgusting, repulsive, sickening things [he’d] seen this year on Panama City Beach,” adding: “And I’ve seen a lot of them.”

Kennedy is being held in DeKalb County, according to the county’s online inmate locator. The county Sheriff’s Office could not be reached for comment.

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