SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – More than a decade after a Dallas man robbed a Shreveport woman and threatened to rape her, a unanimous Caddo Parish jury found him guilty as charged in a retrial that concluded Thursday, August 21, 2025.
The three-woman, nine-man jury in District Judge Donald E. Hathaway Jr.’s court deliberated about an hour before returning its finding that in late August 2014, Joseph Martin Bryant, 50, forced his way into the home of his female victim, who lived on Creswell Avenue in the Spring Lake neighborhood, after knocking on the door and offering to perform tree trimming services. Armed with a knife, he threatened to rape and kill her. But after about 15 to 20 minutes, he fled after taking about $120 in cash. The case remained unsolved for approximately one month.
Late that September, Bryant tried to rob another victim on Millicent Way, at the other side of Spring Lake, after he approached the woman, who was loading her grandchildren into a vehicle. He again offered to perform yard work, and when the woman declined, he asked for money, claiming he was hungry. When the woman gave him $5, he demanded her purse, claiming he had a gun. When she shouted for help, he ran off toward Line Avenue. The woman was able to provide a detailed physical description to police and he was apprehended later at Mall St. Vincent. The woman identified him as her assailant, and the detective working the case saw similarities his case and the earlier incident on Creswell. The victim from Creswell picked Bryant from a lineup and he was arrested. At his first trial, prosecutors introduced evidence that Bryant had been convicted in Texas in 1994 of a sexual assault and produced another witness who testified Bryant raped her in high school in Texas…