Garrick Landon Bloom, 48, shocked Florida when he was arrested in Tallahassee and charged with 865 charges of child rape. For years, the child predator groomed a 5-year-old boy and subjected him to recurrent sexual assault. He was charged with rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, 120 counts of statutory sexual assault of a child 11 years of age or older, 96 counts of statutory sexual assault, and a single count of endangering the welfare of a child.
He agreed to the bargain of the century when he saw that he faced almost 15,000 years in jail. The prosecution dropped all but five charges of first-degree felony child rape in exchange for Bloom submitting a guilty plea, resulting in a sentence of no less than 40 years and no more than 80 years in prison. Bloom may have been released during his lifetime, putting many children in peril.
After more than a month on the run, police caught Bloom at an emergency homeless shelter where he had been staying for two days. According to Deputy Commander Marty West of the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force, he was captured outside of the Kearney Center and brought into jail.
Bloom had escaped from his home in Clarion, Pennsylvania, to Tampa and then Tallahassee. He eluded officials for a month after an arrest order was issued. US Marshals eventually took over the investigation and found him, whereupon they arrested him.
Unsurprisingly, even the most heinous offenders consider child abusers and rapists to be at the bottom of the prison food chain. As a result, it wasn’t long until Bloom had a run-in with one of his fellow detainees.
Bloom was discovered unconscious in his cell just after 11 p.m., according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Although police and medical personnel acted quickly to save lives, their efforts were futile. The emergency medical personnel soon arrived at the site and proclaimed Bloom dead.
The Pennsylvania State Police Barracks in Clearfield verified that Bloom’s murder was a homicide after an investigation. The Clearfield County Coroner’s Office later determined that the cause was ligature strangulation, which is defined as strangulation caused by a constricting band tightened by an external force.
The police are attempting to identify and prosecute his assailant. No additional information about Bloom’s unusual and inexplicable murder has been disclosed as of yet.
Bloom would have had to register as a Tier 3 sex offender for life if he had survived his jail sentence long enough to see his release. This, though, would not safeguard the youngsters with whom he may readily come into contact, leaving them exposed to abuse.
Bloom, on the other hand, will never be able to harm another kid again, and his little victim may begin the healing process.
