‘Worst of the worst' gets 75 years for assault, attempted murder of 5-year-old girl
Dorris William Merriweather III left the 5-year-old for dead, half-naked and bloodied in a southeast Fort Wayne woods.
But on Friday, the now 12-year-old girl told Allen Superior Judge John Surbeck that she wanted Merriweather, 38, to be put somewhere he can’t hurt anyone ever again.
“I want him to go to jail,” she said in a quiet voice from the witness stand. “I want him to rot in there.”
Merriweather will likely spend the rest of his life behind prison bars.
Surbeck sentenced the now twice-convicted child molester to 75 years in prison for attempted murder and two counts of child molesting. On top of a 45-year sentence he is already serving, Merriweather has been sentenced to a total of 120 years in prison.
In the early morning hours of April 3, 2003, Merriweather sneaked into the girl’s small home and snatched her from the living room floor where she was sleeping.
He took her to a wooded area where he sexually assaulted her, tried to strangle her and, thinking she was dead, tried to cover her with leaves and debris before running away.
About 6:40 a.m., police received a call from a man who said he had found a child in front of his southeast-side home – wearing only a shirt.
After initial reports about the abduction, the case went cold – drawing few tips to Crime Stoppers and with police gleaning little information from door-to-door interviews.
In September 2009 an Allen Superior Court jury convicted Merriweather of molesting a 6-year-old girl in 2007 and 2008 and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
DNA collected from Merriweather when he entered the Indiana Department of Correction was put into the state’s database, and it matched DNA evidence preserved in the now-7-year-old assault. In March, Allen County prosecutors charged Merriweather with attempted murder, burglary, criminal confinement and three counts of child molesting.
The girl’s mother described how the girl has coped over the past few years.
“She is my strongest child,” her mother said. “She is stronger than me.”
But, she said, 75 years in prison is not enough time.
“It hurts my heart that 75 years is what I have to settle for,” she said. “He should have no hope of ever breathing free air again. The Lord is on my baby’s side. Now we have a judge, after seven years, who’s gonna give me justice.”
After his attorney, William Lebrato, argued for a prison sentence to be served at the same time as his 45-year sentence, Merriweather offered a brief apology, asking the family to forgive him.
Surbeck did not give Merriweather’s apology much weight, particularly when compared against the nature of the crime.
“It just tends to ring hollow,” Surbeck said. “You tried to kill a little child, to cover the heinous acts you committed.”
The judge also took a shot at the state’s higher courts, which he said have criticized judges for giving lengthy prison sentences, saying such time should be reserved for the worst of the worst.
“Mr. Merriweather, you are the worst of the worst,” Surbeck said. “I hope you never see the light of day, at least not frequently.”
Surbeck added he did not say such things out of spite or malice but wanted the sentence to reflect the seriousness of this crime, separate from the others Merriweather had committed.
After the hearing, Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards and deputy prosecutor Stacey Speith gave credit to the Sexual Assault Treatment Center for having collected, and preserved, the evidence from the crime so well.
“But for DNA, this case never would have been solved,” Richards said.
Allen County prosecutors added additional charges Friday to the criminal case against local lawyer Daniel E. Serban after investigators said he admitted misappropriating money from an estate account.