A 24-year-old man accused of attacking two women in and around the University of South Alabama campus in April 2014 will remain behind bars while his criminal case moves forward, after a Mobile County judge revoked his probation from an earlier conviction.
Presiding Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick ordered the revocation for JaWaun Maurice Dawson, who had been serving two years of probation stemming from a 2012 guilty plea to theft and receiving stolen property. That earlier case involved a laptop and a purse taken from the university library. On June 18, Graddick revoked the probation after new charges were filed against Dawson connected to two separate incidents in west Mobile.
New Charges Filed
Dawson pleaded not guilty this week to four first-degree felony counts: robbery, burglary, attempted sodomy, and sexual abuse. According to police accounts, one incident occurred on April 24 when a woman was abducted at gunpoint in a parking area near the university’s north chemistry building. Investigators said she was robbed of cash and a cell phone and sexually assaulted in two separate campus-area locations. Surveillance footage allegedly captured a man matching Dawson’s description attempting to use the victim’s stolen credit card afterward.
A grand jury indictment described a second incident the day before, on April 23, in which a man forced his way into a woman’s apartment in the 100 block of East Drive, directly across from the university’s campus. The indictment said the victim was struck in the head with a firearm, and a Mobile police spokesman said an iPhone and an Xbox gaming console were taken from the apartment.
Held Without Bond Reduction
Investigators described Dawson as a brazen repeat offender given the proximity and timing of the two attacks. A university spokesperson confirmed Dawson had previously been a student at the school before his 2012 theft case.
In revoking Dawson’s probation, Judge Graddick credited him with three months already served and ordered him to serve out the remainder of his two-year sentence on the original charges while the new felony case proceeds separately. Dawson had been granted bail of $193,000 in April, with $185,000 required in cash, but he remained in the Mobile County Metro Jail unable to meet that amount.
Court records at the time listed a trial date in late October, with a status hearing set for early September. The case drew heightened attention to campus-area safety near the University of South Alabama, prompting renewed conversations at the time about lighting, patrols, and security near off-campus student housing.