Man Indicted in 5 Florida Student Deaths

Louisiana drifter Danny Harold Rolling was indicted Friday in the grisly killings of five college students stabbed in their off-campus apartments in August, 1990.

No indictment was issued against Edward Lewis Humphrey, a former University of Florida freshman who was considered a secondary suspect.

After 30 minutes of deliberations, the grand jury indicted Rolling on five counts of first-degree murder, three counts of sexual battery and three counts of armed burglary.

The 17-member grand jury heard nine days of often gruesome testimony from 43 witnesses. They viewed photos and videotapes of the three bloody apartments in which the students were stabbed and, in some cases, mutilated. In one case, a decapitated head was placed on a bookshelf.

Grand jurors were told that DNA evidence links Rolling’s semen to two crime scenes.

Rolling, 37, of Shreveport, La., is also a suspect in a triple slaying in his hometown that had similarities to the Gainesville slayings.

He is serving four life terms as a habitual offender for a series of burglaries and robberies in Tampa and Ocala, Fla., in the days after the killings.

During the past 15 months, investigators have checked about 6,600 leads and analyzed about 1,500 pieces of evidence, State Atty. Len Register said.

“I know some have questioned why it took so long, but I think it’s obvious to most of you that this is no typical case with the volume of information we’re dealing with,” Register said.

He said it could be two years or more before the case comes to trial.

No indictments were filed against Humphrey, 20, who has a history of mental illness, although crime-lab analysts said that pubic hairs found at the first two crime scenes were undistinguishable from his.

The former student gained additional notoriety in the days after the killings when he assaulted his 80-year-old grandmother. He served a prison term for that attack and was released in September. His grandmother died Wednesday.

The victims’ bodies were found in off-campus apartments over three days during the opening week of school at the University of Florida. Four were university students, a fifth attended a local community college.