Police: Man sexually attacked neighbors
Suspect climbed into homes through windows
The sex-crimes suspect lived two streets away from his first victim and two blocks away from his second one, Hollywood police records show. One victim was 13; the other, 50. Other than that, the similarities between the two sex crimes committed Dec. 4 and Jan. 11 are glaring.
In both instances the suspect broke into the homes through back windows in the early morning hours, demanded money, covered the women’s faces and demanded that they masturbate while he searched their homes for valuables, according to Hollywood police reports.
Andre McGriff, 35, of the 2100 block of Plunkett Street, was arrested at 3 a.m. Friday at an address other than his home, police said. DNA evidence from each crime scene pointed toward McGriff, an arrest report said.
Police executed a search warrant at the arrest location in the 2200 block of Dewey Street on Friday afternoon.
McGriff is a convicted felon with
two stints in state prison. Records also show that in May 2017 he was caught by a cop crouching in a dark alley in the same Hollywood neighborhood where he lives and peeking into apartment windows.
He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor prowling and loitering and was fined $293.
After the Jan. 11 assault, Hollywood police said they thought the crimes might have been linked to two prior burglaries coupled with sexual threats in November and December within the same 8-by 3-block corridor bounded by Pembroke Road to Washington Street and between Federal Highway and Dixie Highway. However, after McGriff’s arrest Friday, police made no mention of the November incident.
In the days immediately after the Jan. 11 attack, neighbors said they wished police had alerted them before the third victim was harmed.
Friday, police said McGriff first struck Dec. 4 when he broke into a residence where a 13-year-old girl was home alone.
It was a little after 1 a.m. when the girl saw McGriff climbing through her mother’s bedroom window. She ran and screamed but he caught up to her, covered her mouth with his hand, ordered her to shut up and made her lie face down on a bed, a police report said.
“Where is the money?” he wanted to know.
Wearing a white bandana over his mouth and nose, the intruder led the girl to a loveseat in the living room and made her face away from him. When the girl saw lights flash, she assumed he was taking nude photos of her, the report said. He threatened to post the pictures on Facebook if she told anyone.
His next demand was that she masturbate. Then he molested her with a gloved hand.
McGriff threatened to return and kill the girl if she called the police. He told her her he lived “very close,” according to the police report.
He stole $100 and a paycheck and left through the front door.
McGriff’s next victim was sexually assaulted at 2:50 a.m. Jan. 11 when he removed a windowpane in a back door, reached in, unlocked two locks and entered a home in the 1900 block of Plunkett Street, police reports show.
A 50-year-old woman who was home alone awoke to McGriff standing over her asking, “B----, where is the gold? Where is the money?”
He ordered her not to look at him, slapped her in the head and led her to the living room couch, where he put her face down and removed her shorts, the police report said.
The culprit sexually assaulted her with a gloved hand.
If she called police, he said he’d return and “f--her up,” the report said. He put a blanket over her face and left.
DNA from the windowpane at the woman’s house matched DNA from the bedroom window frame at the girl’s house, according to a police report. In each instance the DNA pointed toward Tony McGriff, an alias sometimes used by Andre McGriff, as the offender, police said.
McGriff was sentenced in 2001 to two years in state prison after being convicted for possessing cocaine with intent to sell and burglary of an occupied dwelling in Miami-Dade County, court records show.
His next prison stay came in 2010, when he was sentenced to three years after being convicted of the same charges in Broward County. McGriff was released from prison in November 2012.
A Broward judge ordered that McGriff be held in jail with no bond.
Investigators urge anyone with information about McGriff to call the Hollywood police detective bureau at 954-967-4411.