On the afternoon of December 8, 1981, a 17-year-old girl was changing clothes in her home in Canaveral Groves, Florida, when she was confronted by a man holding a utility knife.
She said the man used the knife to cut her clothes off and to trace lines on her skin as he raped her, cutting her more than 60 times. After the attacker left, the victim contacted her boyfriend. Police were called, and she was taken to a hospital emergency room, where a rape kit was taken and her clothes were collected.
She described her attacker as about six feet tall, 160 pounds, with a receding hairline.
Four days later, the victim saw a man in a convenience store and told her sister that he resembled her attacker, only shorter. The victim's sister said the man was "Walter Hedge."
In January 1982, the victim told investigators about the man and the police arrested Walter Dedge. After seeing Walter Dedge’s picture, the victim’s sister told police the man they saw in the store was 20-year-old Wilton Dedge, Walter’s brother.
Wilton Dedge’s picture was placed in a photographic array, and the victim identified him as her attacker, although he was five feet five inches tall, weighed 125 pounds and had a full head of hair.
On January 8, 1992, Wilton Dedge was arrested and charged with one count each of sexual battery, burglary and aggravated battery.
In April 1982, Dedge went to trial in Brevard County Circuit Court. The victim identified him as her attacker.
John Preston, a retired Pennsylvania state trooper, testified that his dog, Harass II, had linked Dedge to the victim’s home through a “scent lineup.” According to Preston, three months after the attack, the dog sniffed a bag containing paper towels that Dedge had used after he washed his hands. The dog was led to four piles of soiled bedsheets, including ones that came from the bed where the victim was attacked. The dog alerted on the bedsheets that came from the victim’s bed, Preston testified.
A hair analyst testified for the prosecution that two pubic hairs were found on the victim’s bed. The analyst said that one hair was similar to hairs taken from the victim and the other hair was from a male. The analyst said that Dedge could not be eliminated as the source of that hair. The analyst also testified that while he couldn’t determine the frequency of hair consistencies, “it would not be a million white people” who would possess hairs similar to the one from the crime scene.
Sperm was found on a swab in the rape kit, but no blood typing was performed.
The defense sought to present an expert witness to criticize dog scent evidence, but the trial judge did not allow the witness to testify.
Dedge testified and denied involvement in the crime. He said that he was out of work at the time of the attack and was 50 miles away in New Smyrna Beach, repairing the transmission of a friend’s vehicle. Two witnesses testified to corroborate that account. The defense also presented a copy of a check for $25 that had been given to Dedge for his work, which had been cashed at the auto parts store across the street from where he performed the repairs.
Moreover, Dedge said that on the night of the attack, he was in a biker bar in New Smyrna Beach when a fight broke out. That testimony was buttressed by police reports that were introduced showing that a fight had been reported at the bar that night at 9:45 p.m.
On May 4, 1982, Dedge was convicted of sexual battery, burglary and aggravated battery. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In December 1983, the Fifth District Florida Court of Appeal reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial. Appellate Judge Winnifred Sharp, the author of the ruling, declared, “Although the scent lineup was persuasive, there were two major errors committed at trial that related to it.” She said the first was the judge’s ruling that blocked the defense from presenting an expert on scent discrimination. The judge noted that the scent lineup wasn’t conducted until three months after the crime, which was going to be addressed by the defense witness.
The second was the improper admission of hearsay testimony from Preston that an expert in scent discrimination had established the dog’s expertise. “This testimony was only relevant to show that an out of court witness had vouched for the reliability of Harass II to identify scents,” the court said.
In August 1984, Dedge went to trial a second time. The prosecution evidence was similar to the first trial, except that the prosecution also presented for the first time, testimony from Clarence Zacke.
Zacke testified that Dedge had confessed to him that he had committed the crime, calling the victim an “old hog,” and saying that if he got out of prison, he would kill her.
The defense presented Glen Johnson, a dog handler from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Johnson testified that the RCMP didn’t use tracking dogs in criminal prosecutions because the dogs are too unreliable.
On August 31, 1984, Dedge was convicted on all of the charges. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years with a provision that he could not seek to be paroled until after 25 years.
The conviction was upheld by the Fifth District Florida Court of Appeal, but remanded with an order to remove the 25 year parole restriction, making him eligible for parole immediately.
Evidence was later uncovered by Dedge’s defense that the prosecution had not disclosed a deal they had made with Zacke to reduce his 180-year sentence to 80 years and also did not disclose that the prosecution had characterized Zace as a liar and con artist in an unrelated case.
In 1996, Dedge became one of the first Florida inmates to seek postconviction DNA testing, several years before the state would pass a law in 2001 to provide for such testing. His motion was granted in 2000, and, in June 2001, mitochondrial DNA testing excluded Dedge as the source of the pubic hair.
The Innocence Project asked the court to overturn Dedge's conviction on grounds of actual innocence. The prosecution opposed the motion on legal grounds, arguing that Dedge was not entitled to DNA testing because the law had not yet been passed.
This legal battle stretched out for several years. At one point, the prosecution said it would oppose Dedge’s release even if they knew that he was absolutely innocent. Ultimately, the prosecution argument was rejected by Brevard Circuit Court Judge J. Preston Silvernail and again by the Fifth District Court of Appeal in April 2004.
At that point, further testing was ordered on the biological evidence found on the anal swab recovered from the rape kit. Dedge was excluded as the source of the biological evidence. On August 11, 2004, his conviction was vacated, the prosecution dismissed the case, and Dedge was released.
In 2005, the Florida Legislature awarded Dedge $2 million in compensation.
In 2008, William Dillon, who had been convicted in 1981 in Brevard County based in part on testimony from John Preston, was exonerated by DNA testing.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-23-2026
