A Miami-Dade jury this week acquitted Troy Dumas -- the man dubbed the North Dade Stalker by police, who said he broke into the homes of up to 18 women -- in the state's first case against him, his attorney said Thursday.
Dumas, 31, had been charged with armed burglary, kidnapping and attempted sexual battery in connection to an April 2006 attempted sexual assault, said Reginald A. Mathis, who represented Dumas.
It took the jury made up of three men and three women less than an hour to return the not guilty verdict.
''I'm just glad that the jury was able to see through the state's evidence,'' Mathis said. ``The state tried to present the case in such a way that anytime there's DNA, it's bulletproof. It wasn't.''
Dumas was tried on charges of breaking into the home of a 28-year-old single mother and trying to rape her at gunpoint. DNA evidence and a shoe print from the crime scene were presented in court, but the defense raised enough doubt about the proof to convict.
For the first 10 months of 2006, a man known as the North Dade Stalker wore a mask and broke into homes in the early morning hours through windows and open doors. He proved elusive, avoiding capture for months and causing the neighborhood he targeted to be on high alert.
Although police suspected Dumas was involved in the 18 break-ins, he was only charged with two: the case that ended Wednesday and a similar attempted sexual assault of a 54-year-old grandmother. That case goes to trial in August.
Dumas was arrested in October 2006 at the home of his sister and her children. He'd registered at that address the previous May as a sex offender with state authorities. The house was just blocks from where the last break-in occurred that same morning.
In that case, a man wearing a mask and gray jumpsuit and carrying a gun pried open a door on a duplex in the 800 block of Northwest 109th Street.
A 31-year-old woman awoke to find a man standing over her holding a gun. She screamed, scaring him off.
Dumas was never charged with that assault.
Before his arrest, Dumas, who'd been working at a screen door and window installation company, was able to sidestep a background check and coach a youth football team.
Dumas remains in custody pending his August trial, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office. Dumas also has a probation violation that still has not been resolved, Griffith added.
