HOUSTON — A man charged in seven sexual assault cases in Houston also is the prime suspect in eight others since 2012, investigators said Monday.
Marquis V. Tate, 33, is accused of using either a knife or a gun to force women into his car and then taking them to secluded areas and sexually assaulting them, said Houston police Officer Monica Fortson, the lead investigator in the case.
“If they did not comply, he physically assaulted them. A majority of the time it was a punch to the face and a continual physical assault until they complied,” Fortson said.
After the first sexual assault in Houston in 2012, Tate lived out of state, possibly in Philadelphia and Ohio, police said. He returned to Houston and is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in February 2015. He then lived in Fort Worth for several months before returning to Houston and allegedly attacking women during five assaults from October 2015 to January 2016.
Fortson said she’s concerned Tate might have committed similar crimes in other cities.
“Looking at what he was doing here in the Houston area, I would strongly encourage any agency that possibly believes that he might be linked with them to reach out to us,” she said.
