Police yesterday announced that they had solved the murder of singer Thriller U's daughter in United States more than two years ago.

According to a report carried in the Sun Sentinel website, the man the police claim is the killer, was a hard-bitten felon with a lengthy record, whose DNA had been traced to the duct tape.

A "ruthless animal" was how Detective Steve Toyota described Kevin Lavon Pratt, 33, who is now serving a year on a Miami-Dade County conviction for fleeing and eluding a police officer. Pratt had been scheduled to be released from North Florida's Marion Correctional Institution in nine days.

In interviews and records, investigators detailed the horrific night of Aug. 16, 2009, when the mothers and their children fatally encountered a gun-wielding intruder.

Camille Hamilton, now 41, was married to Eustace Hamilton, a reggae singer known as Thriller U. She and her daughter, Nekitta, 15, had been visiting from Jamaica for two weeks while shopping for the teen's Sweet 16 party. They were staying with Faith Bisasor, 49, an emergency room nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and her 15-year-old son Davion Bishop.

surprised attack

The Sun Sentinel article further stated that on the night of the incident, Hamilton, who had been out running errands, arrived at Bisasor's house around 11 p.m. Pratt then allegedly surprised her from behind, leveled a gun and demanded money. Hamilton refused.

The robber then ordered her into the house where the other three victims were. Hamilton gave him $80 from her purse. Still, the affidavit said, the gunman herded all four into an upstairs master bedroom and forced Bisasor to bind the others' hands and feet with duct tape. The man set his pistol down and began to tape up Bisasor as well.

In apparent desperation, the bound Hamilton managed to crawl to the pistol, raise it, and fire two rounds at the robber. She missed.

"Her hands were duct taped in the front so, you know, it's an awkward position to try and handle a gun and fire a gun," Toyota is quoted as saying.

Unscathed, Pratt allegedly snatched the gun from Hamilton, dragged her into a hallway and threatened to rape her. Then, police said, he shot her in the side of the head.

Hamilton awoke 14 hours later. Blinded by her own dried blood, she located her cellphone and somehow was able to punch the redial function to dial the last number she had phoned. The call reached a friend, who dialed 911.

When police arrived at the house on Encino Street, they found Hamilton in the doorway, alive, and the three other victims upstairs. All were dead of gunshot wounds to the head.

Hamilton was left partially deaf and partially blind. Police for a time were left with no suspect.

But last June, taking advantage of a new form of forensic testing, investigators managed to link DNA found on the duct tape to Pratt, a transient who has spent much of his life in and out of prison following arrests for offenses including armed robbery, assault, and aggravated battery.

Last month, a sobbing Hamilton identified Pratt in a line-up at the North Florida prison. Police will formally charge him with three counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder. He will be transported to Broward County to await trial.