By Matt Wiley
It’s a classic case of mistaken identity and of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In our last issue, we reported that John Michael Parrish, 30, was arrested as the suspect in a July 25 Hunter’s Green burglary. However, although our information came from an initial Tampa Police Department (TPD) report, new information shows that all was not as it initially seemed in the case and the actual suspects since have been arrested.
According to the corrected info from TPD, a Hunter’s Green couple came home from a local grocery store to find three suspects in their home. The men had entered the premises by forcing open a window on the side of the house. The suspects took a laptop computer and a Playstation 4 game console and hopped into a “blacked out” Chevrolet Silverado truck with large black rims and tinted windows (which was being driven by another suspect) and fled.
One of the victims and a nearby roofer witnessed the suspects fleeing. Once reported, a vehicle matching the description was spotted traveling north on BBD, north of Cross Creek Blvd. But, even though Parrish’s vehicle was not the one used in the burglary, Parrish was taken into custody and was positively identified by the victims back at the scene.
In interviews with TPD detectives following his arrest, Parrish explained that he works for House Doctor (a home improvement company) and was working on a flooring job in Saddlebrook Resort (located off S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel) that evening. Parrish said that he hadn’t been in Hunter’s Green in more than a year and explained that he had left Saddlebrook at 12:20 p.m. in his black Chevy Silverado to take some flooring supplies back to Lowe’s (located on BBD in Tampa Palms). He also made a stop at Home Depot (a little further north on BBD), before heading north again on BBD and then being pulled over by TPD officers.
Additional interviews with the victims’ daughter indicated that she knew those responsible. Among the four involved were Paul R. Wharton High football players Norsalus N. Jackson, 18, and Terrence Smith, 18, both of the Easton Park neighborhood off Morris Bridge Rd., as well as two minors, one of whom was the driver of the “blacked-out Silverado,” not Parrish.
Jackson and Smith were both charged with conspiring to commit a felony, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and third-degree grand theft. Both were released on their own recognizance on July 31. Their names no longer appear on Wharton’s football roster on Maxpreps.com, but we were unable to reach Wharton football coach David Mitchell for comment on the two players.
The TPD report says that once officers realized that Parrish was not involved, his property was returned to him and he was released from custody.
“This is a very unfortunate anomaly where within minutes of the burglary, a witness positively identified Parrish as the burglar and the victim positively identified Parrish’s vehicle as the suspect vehicle,” says TPD spokesperson Laura McElroy. “Based upon that information, the officers established probable cause for the arrest and acted in good faith.”
McElroy confirms that as soon as the officers realized that the witnesses mistakenly identified Parrish, they began the process of expunging the arrest. She says that TPD also worked with the bondsman to refund Parrish’s bail and released his vehicle from the police impound.
We apologize to Parrish and his family for any trouble the previous story we published may have caused.
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