Dontrell Morris faces a sexual battery charge after he allegedly took a syringe filled with what police believe was semen and sprayed it on a woman at a Walmart in Portage, Indiana. (Morris mugshot via Portage Police Department, Walmart image via Google Maps)
A man is facing charges after he allegedly sprayed a syringe filled with possible seminal fluids on a woman at a Walmart in Indiana.
Dontrell Lacartie Morris, 30, of Three Rivers, Michigan, is facing charges of sexual battery by touching and sexual battery by bodily waste, according to court records.
An arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime said police were called to a Portage Walmart on Aug. 14 for a possible sexual assault. When they arrived, the victim was visibly upset and crying. She told officers that she was standing in the spray paint aisle looking at glue when a man, later identified as Morris, came into the aisle stood about a foot behind her, which made her uncomfortable, the affidavit said. The victim started to leave the aisle when Morris bumped into her, seemingly on purpose. He said “sorry, I did not mean to run into you” and she walked away from him.
The woman said she went to the bathroom where she felt a sticky substance on her lower back. She called her mother, who told her to call police immediately, the affidavit said.
Using surveillance video, responding officers were able to track Morris’ movements inside the store. It did not show the incident, but showed Morris approach the aisle around the time the victim said the assault happened. After the incident, Morris walked away from the aisle and was looking back in her direction before walking out of the store, the affidavit said.
Officers identified Morris’ Toyota Camry, which had Michigan plates. Officers found Morris sitting in his car in a nearby parking lot. They surrounded the car and ordered him to get out with his hands up. When officers approached, they could see a syringe sticking out of his pocket.
“As I pulled the item out, I asked Dontrell what was in his pocket,” an officer wrote in the affidavit. “He stated it was just a syringe. I asked what was in it. He stated ‘just lotion, I only bring it around my friends but nothing else.'”
The officer described the substance in the syringe as “a white creamy substance which I believed to possibly semen,” the affidavit said.
According to a partially redacted interview with detectives, Morris continued to insist the substance was lotion. He would spray his friends as a prank, he told police.
“I asked Mr. Morris what he believed the victim would think the substance was and he stated, ‘probably something inappropriate…something that’s not lotion maybe like I don’t know could be a whole lot worse than lotion,'” according to the affidavit.
Morris eventually admitted that his semen would be found when the victim’s pants were tested, the affidavit said. He agreed to let officers swab his cheek for DNA.
Morris was taken to the Porter County Jail where he has since bonded out. He was ordered to not have any contact with the victim and has a court date scheduled for Wednesday.
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