LARGO, Fla. — A Largo man maintains his innocence decades after he was convicted in a burglary and sexual battery case.
Kevin Herrick is serving a life sentence in prison.
His most recent attorney, Scott Cupp, said Herrick is innocent and has spent the past 37 years in prison.
"Kevin Herrick did not do this. There’s no question in my mind," said Cupp.
In July of 1989, the Largo Police Department was called to a triplex on Audubon Road in Largo. A woman was raped and her boyfriend was stabbed when he returned home.
The suspect took off before police arrived.
Cupp said Herrick lived a few doors down from where the crime occurred.
"The police come, an investigation ensues, and within a relatively short period of time, a matter of hours, Kevin is identified as the perpetrator, is arrested, goes to jail, gets convicted, gets sentenced to life," said Cupp.
Cupp said police said they located a bloody knife and bloody clothes in Herrick's room, but that wasn't the case.
"There was a knife, suspected blood was not blood, it was mud or dirt, so absolutely no physical evidence, six prints lifted, four of them came back to I believe the boyfriend, the other two remain unidentified to this day, so no physical evidence points to Kevin," said Cupp.
Cupp said Herrick lived with a friend and the friend's grandmother. The grandmother had testified she woke Herrick up when she heard a woman screaming nearby.
"She stated at the time that she heard the victim screaming, went in, and actually woke up Kevin. Kevin ran outside," said Cupp.
Cupp is a longtime prosecutor, judge and defense attorney. He filed a motion for postconviction relief.
He hopes to get the state attorney's office to revisit the case and give Herrick a new trial.
"This assailant was unsophisticated. I’ve said he didn’t wear a mask. He didn’t wear gloves, there has to be — and there was — physical evidence, and the physical evidence does not point back to Mr. Herrick," said Cupp.
Tampa Bay 28 reached out to the state attorney's office, but has not heard back yet.
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