Derrick Caldwell was still wearing a pair of bright orange jail socks when police say he attacked and raped two women in their homes on Dec. 10 and 11.
The 30-year-old had just been released from jail on Dec. 9 after pleading guilty to a criminal trespassing charge. And three days later he was picked up and jailed again for possession of marijuana.
But during those three days of freedom, Chattanooga police say, Caldwell broke into the Hixson and Brainerd homes of two women -- both over the age of 60 -- and raped them.
Both women described Caldwell as the attacker, and both recounted similar attacks. In the first attack, the woman told police she arrived home around 10 p.m. on Dec. 10 and went into her bedroom. When she walked in, a man "rose up" from the other side of the bed and grabbed her. He was holding a scarf and told her to do what he said. He then raped her, the woman said.
In the second instance, a day later, a woman told police she was at home around 11:30 p.m. when a man confronted her in her home and said he had a knife. He then took her into a bedroom and raped her, she said.
After the rapes, both women said, they talked with the man, whom they identified as Caldwell. The second woman told police that Caldwell said he doesn't "try to do these bad things."
Caldwell also told both women that he used to play football in high school before his mother made him quit because his grades were too low and that his father was dead, the women told police. He told one woman that his name was Michael, and then later said his name was Derrick.
The first woman said Caldwell told her he'd be dead soon, but that it was OK "since he would go to be with his father in heaven."
When investigators brought Caldwell in for questioning, he told police many of those same details, according to the affidavits. Police also discovered that the attacker had entered the first woman's house by breaking a glass window pane on a door and unlatching the lock.
When Caldwell was interviewed, he had a fresh wound on his right arm "that would be consistent with reaching through broken glass," according to the affidavit.
Caldwell's latest criminal trespassing charge sprang from an incident on Dec. 3, when he was arrested in Red Bank a week before the attacks. A man saw Caldwell looking into the windows of his next-door neighbor's home and car. The neighbor, a 55-year-old woman, told police she didn't know Caldwell. On Dec. 13, after the attacks, he was again arrested in Red Bank for sleeping in a laundromat.
On Wednesday, Caldwell was charged with two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated burglary. He is being held in the Hamilton County Jail on a $450,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear Monday in Hamilton County General Sessions Court.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.