ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A man convicted of raping and stabbing a woman in Duval County more than three decades ago is now accused of sexual assault, again.
After a nearly five-day manhunt, Bruce Whitehead, 54, was arrested Thursday in Orlando. He is accused of picking up a woman in his car and sexually assaulting her at knifepoint.
He is charged with sexual battery with a deadly weapon, armed kidnapping, battery, robbery and attempted murder.
Back in 2009, a jury determined Whitehead was a sexually violent predator. He was committed to a secure DCF facility for long-term control, care and treatment. But after more than a decade there, doctors determined he was no longer a threat and he was released and registered as a sex offender. Despite therapy and evaluations clearing him, Whitehead now stands accused of the same crimes that put him behind bars in the ‘80s.
Whitehead was convicted of kidnapping, armed sexual battery and first-degree attempted murder in a 1986 Duval County case and spent 20 years in prison. Now, the News4JAX I-TEAM is digging into Whitehead’s past and investigating why he was released early from his 40-year prison sentence.
In 1986, Whitehead pleaded guilty to similar crimes. According to court records, he forced a woman out of her car at knifepoint, took the victim into the woods, raped her several times and stabbed her 25 times.
Then, the state said, Whitehead flagged down a police car and asked to be arrested, confessing he killed the woman. The woman, however, survived.
Attorney Gene Nichols, who is unaffiliated with the case, said there are many reasons why Whitehead could have been a candidate for release. But before he could be released, the state intervened.
“When an individual is about to be released, that’s typically when the state will kind of step in and say, ‘No, this is an individual that we need to consider for involuntary treatment,’” Nichols said.
The state argued Whitehead’s record and psychological evaluations showed he was a sexually violent predator suffering from a mental abnormality or a personality disorder that makes him likely to commit sexual violence if not confined to a facility long-term. The jury agreed with the state’s findings.
“DCF can hold them in a facility for an indeterminate period of time, in order to have treatment, and hopes to put them back out in the community,” Nichols said.
Court records also show he underwent evaluations almost every year since his involuntary commitment and in 2022, two doctors found Whitehead “has so changed that he no longer poses a risk of re-offending such that he is safe to be released from secure detention.” Then, Whitehead was released.
“This is the worst-case heartbreaking scenario for all that were involved. But everybody here at the State Attorney’s Office in court, and the judges who were involved, did everything within their power to keep this individual detained,” Nichols said.