On the morning hours of August 17, 1981, the body of 40-year-old James Dvorak was found in a wooded area near Canova Beach, in Brevard County on Florida’s east coast. Dvorak was nude, and tree bark was found in his mouth, suggesting he had been beaten with a tree limb. The area where the body was found was a location where gay men were known to meet to have sex.
Law-enforcement officers collected Dvorak’s discarded clothing and other items from the crime scene.
Later that day, after hearing about the murder on the news, 56-year-old John Parker contacted the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. He told them that around 1:30 a.m. that morning he had parked his truck in the Canova Beach Park parking lot, hoping to find someone to have sex with.
Parker said that a man who had blood stains came out of the woods. He told Parker his name was “Jim” and that he couldn’t find his car. He wanted to know if he could get a ride to a bar down the road. Parker said that he asked about the blood and the man said had just come from a bar fight. Parker said he drove the man to a tavern about three miles away. On the way, he stopped to perform oral sex on the man. The next morning, in the back of his truck, Parker found “Jim’s” blood-soaked yellow T-shirt, size small, with “SURF IT!” on the front, and tossed it into a trash can near a grocery store.
Police recovered the T-shirt from the trash can and collected other evidence from Parker’s truck.
Five days later, on August 22, 21-year-old William Dillon was with his half-brother, Joe, at Canova Beach when they were questioned by two law-enforcement officers. Although the case had been in the media for five days, the officers said they were suspicious that Dillon knew about the murder. They asked him to come to the station the next day, but Dillon did not go there.
As part of the investigation, authorities hired John Preston, a purported expert in handling scent-tracking dogs.
On August 25, Dillon came to the police station, ostensibly for an interview. The police asked him to sign a “waiver.” After he signed it, the police said that they didn’t need it after all and told him to ball it up and throw it away. He was then released.
Later that night, the police came to his home and said they needed him to come to the station for some “tests.” He was escorted into a room with a one-way mirror. On the other side was Parker, who said he wasn’t sure if Dillon was the hitchhiker.
Soon after, Preston entered the room with his German Shepherd, Harass II. The dog alerted on Dillon. Later, Dillon learned that Preston claimed that the dog had alerted on Dillon after it had smelled the paper that Dillon had wadded up and tossed.
The dog also was allowed to sniff the yellow T-shirt and then was presented with three wadded up pieces of paper. The dog alerted on Dillon’s paper.
In the early morning hours of August 26, 1981, Dillon was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
Dillon went to trial in November 1981 in Broward County Circuit Court. Prosecutors presented four main witnesses.
Dillon’s girlfriend, Donna Parrish, testified that she and Dillon had a fight at a bar called The Pelican on the night of August 16 because he had no money for drinks. She said that after midnight, she later came upon Dillon on the beach standing over Dvorak's body and wearing the yellow T-shirt. Her testimony was contradictory at times, however, and she admitted to being confused on the stand.
Preston, the dog handler, testified that his dog had connected Dillon with the crime scene and the T-shirt worn by the perpetrator. He also said that the dog had tracked Dillon’s scent from the police station to the crime scene.
Parker, who was legally blind in one eye, identified Dillon in court as the hitchhiker he had picked up near the crime scene. His initial description of the hitchhiker, however, did not match Dillon's physical characteristics. He originally said the hitchhiker was 6 feet tall and had a mustache. Dillon was 6 feet 4 inches tall and was unable to grow a mustache.
Roger Chapman, who had shared a jail cell with Dillon prior to the trial, testified that Dillon admitted guilt to him. Chapman, who was in jail on sex assault charges, said that Dillon had re-enacted the killing in the jail dining area. Despite the presence of other prisoners at the time, there were no other witnesses to the confession. After Dillon’s trial, the prosecution dismissed the charges against Chapman.
Dillon testified and denied committing the crime. He said that he had been miles away from the beach on the night of the crime. Several witnesses corroborated his alibi.
On December 4, 1981, the jury convicted Dillon of first-degree murder and robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Less than two weeks after the trial, Parrish recanted her testimony. She said she had fabricated the story about seeing Dillon at the crime scene because law-enforcement officers had threatened her with 25 years in prison as an accessory if she didn't testify against him. Later, it was revealed that she also had sex during the investigation with the lead officer in the case. The officer was suspended and eventually resigned.
Two years after Dillon’s conviction, questions began to arise around the country about Preston’s qualifications. By this time, Preston had participated in hundreds of cases, and his testimony helped lead to numerous convictions. During a trial in the Brevard County courtroom of Judge Gilbert Goshorn in 1984, the judge ordered an accuracy test be performed. Harass II flunked. A 1996 ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court referred to Preston as a “charlatan.”
Dillon filed several appeals in the five years following his conviction; all were denied. In 1996, he began to seek access to biological evidence for DNA testing, but these requests were also denied.
That same year, Wilton Dedge, who had been convicted of sexual assault in Brevard County in 1982, also sought DNA testing. Preston had testified in Dedge’s trial that 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.
Dedge’s motion was granted in 2000. In 2001, mitochondrial DNA testing excluded Dedge as the source of a hair from the rape kit collected after the assault. In 2004, Dedge was exonerated and released.
In 2007, with the help of public defenders and attorneys at the Innocence Project of Florida, Dillon again requested DNA testing. This time, officials determined that most of the evidence from the investigation, including fingernail scrapings from the victim and blood and hair from the crime scene, had been lost or destroyed. The yellow T-shirt, however, had been saved. A judge ordered testing on the remaining evidence.
The results of DNA testing showed that the yellow T-shirt was conclusively tied to the killer and had not been worn by Dillon. Blood on the T-shirt was identified as Dvorak’s blood.
Biological material of another man was discovered on the collar and armpit of the T-shirt, indicating sweat or skin cells from the man who wore the shirt. The DNA profile developed from these areas of the shirt excluded both the victim and Dillon.
Based on the results of these DNA tests, Dillon was granted a new trial and was released from prison on November 18, 2008. The prosecution dismissed the case against him December 10, 2008.
In 2011, the DNA on the T-shirt was linked to James Johnstone, a youth who was at the beach with three friends, Phil Huff, and two brothers, Daryl and Eric Novak. In an article published on SB Nation in 2013, Huff was quoted as saying that the Novak brothers attacked and beat Dvorak after they discovered him having sex with Johnstone. No charges were ever filed against any of the four.
In 2012, the Florida Legislature awarded Dillon $1.3 million in compensation, and the Florida Clemency Commission also granted him a pardon for a 1981 drug conviction that occurred just before he was arrested for murder.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-23-2026
