Prosecutors to Seek Death in Rapist’s Murder Trial

Hours after a woman raped and mutilated by Lawrence Singleton in 1978 said the legal system had let her down when it released him, prosecutors vowed Friday to seek the death penalty against him in the murder of a Florida woman.

Singleton, 69, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, made a brief appearance in a Tampa court Friday. No plea was entered and he was held without bond, the prosecutor’s office said.

Singleton is charged with first-degree murder. He was arrested Wednesday after police found the nude body of Roxanna Hayes, 31, lying in a pool of blood in his house. Police said Hayes had multiple stab wounds. She had a history of 99 arrests, mostly for prostitution.

Sheriff Cal Henderson said the murder weapon is believed to be a 6-inch boning knife. He acknowledged that it took a deputy 34 minutes to reach the scene after a call to 911 but defended the response time and said he didn’t think a faster arrival would have made a difference.

Henderson said investigators are trying to determine if Singleton might have any links to several murders of local prostitutes.

Singleton gained nationwide notoriety when he was convicted in California of raping a 15-year-old runaway and then chopping off her arms in 1978. When he was paroled after eight years of a 14-year sentence, no community in California would take him and he moved to Florida.

Though he reportedly confessed to the Florida slaying, Singleton said when he was arrested Wednesday night that he had been framed in the California attack on Mary Vincent, who is now 34.

Asked about that claim Friday, she said: “It’s ludicrous. He is just pure evil.”

She told the “American Journal” television show on Friday: “I’m upset, devastated, because it had to happen again before anyone realized he shouldn’t have been released in the first place. I feel the system let me down.”

Vincent’s bodyguard, Bob Clayton, said the memory of the attack is always with her.

“She always looks in the back seat of the car before getting in,” he told the New York Daily News. “We have to send the dog into the house first. It’s unrelenting.”