MAITLAND, Fla. – A 89-year-old man called on his neighbor Monday to help fend off a suspect with a baseball bat who police said was sexually assaulting the woman cleaning his Maitland home.
The homeowner told police that he saw Robin Moretz Campbell, 23, in the backyard of his Robinhood Drive house and asked what he was doing. Campbell said he was looking for someone who did not live there. The suspect then asked the housekeeper for a glass of water, according to the arrest report.
The homeowner said after drinking the water, Campbell grabbed the woman and forced his way into the house from the backdoor. The homeowner tried to call police but Campbell grabbed his phone, the victim told police.
"Then he looked like he just snapped, and he rushed in and grabbed my cleaning lady up in his arms off the floor and he was trying to push her into the living room area," the homeowner, William Rooks, told News 6.
Police said Campbell pushed Rooks out the backdoor and began trying to pull off the housekeeper’s pants.
"She was on the floor right there," Rooks told News 6 while in his room Wednesday. "He was trying to attack her. He wanted to take her clothes off."
Rooks said he quickly ran to his upstairs neighbor, Eric Love, for help. Armed with a baseball bat, Love came down and told Campbell to get off the victim, according to the report.
"He dialed the Maitland Police Department handed me his phone and he grabbed his baseball bat and he came down stairs," Rooks said of his neighbor.
The suspect got up and tried to leave the house, and Love attempted to detain Campbell until Maitland police arrived, Rooks told police.
Campbell then yelled out, “I haven’t had sex in a long time, just let me go,” as he fled the house, the Rooks told police.
“I went behind him and grabbed him at the back of his shirt and pulled him back,” Love said of the encounter.
“He kept repeating, ‘I just haven't been with a woman in a long time, can't you have mercy on me, let me go, and I was like, ‘No, it doesn’t' work like that, get on the ground.’”
Love chased the suspect but lost him between houses on Robinhood Drive, police said.
Campbell called police Wednesday and said he wanted to turn himself in. Police found the homeowner’s cellphone when Campbell was arrested, according to the arrest report.
Rooks said police told him Campbell admitted to the crime.
"He admitted what he was after, he was only interested in the woman and he was trying to get rid of me simply just by force," Rooks said.
Campbell is charged with sexual battery, battery on a person 65 years or older, preventing communications, burglary, robbery and theft. He is being held in the Orange County Jail without bail.