Jail psychiatrist resigns

By DEBORAH CIRCELLI
Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- The jail psychiatrist for Volusia County is resigning as the county evaluates whether to renew Prison Health Services contract amid concerns from community leaders over the treatment of inmates with mental illnesses.

Dr. David Hager has told Prison Health Services he's resigning from the national for-profit company contracted by the county to provide health care at the Volusia County Branch Jail since 2005. Officials Thursday didn't know when he will leave.

Hager could not be reached for comment. Prison Health Services' officials said he's been advised by his lawyers not to comment with lawsuits pending against Prison Health Services, Hager and Volusia County about the treatment of inmates.

Martha Harbin, a spokeswoman for Prison Health Services, said Hager is taking a job with another company out of state.

She said a new psychiatrist, who has experience in a correctional setting, has been identified and Hager agreed to work through a transition until that doctor is hired.

Hager and Prison Health Services have been criticized about inmates with mental illnesses not receiving the proper medication or no medication at all.

The Volusia County Council in February postponed a decision on whether to renew Prison Health Services contract that ends in September.

County officials have said the company has been providing "excellent service," but County Chairman Frank Bruno said he's still open to the idea of working with Act Corp. or another company providing the mental health portion of the contract. .

"I think (Hager resigning) presents an opportunity to explore a different approach in the delivery of services," said Deanna Schaeffer, chairwoman of the Flagler/Volusia Behavioral Health Consortium


Local mental health officials have been concerned with Hager evaluating some inmates for a period of time before deciding to give them psychotropic medication, regardless of their history. Harbin said Prison Health Services doesn't dictate to its doctors how to practice medicine, but Hager was operating within psychiatric guidelines, though she added "a different psychiatrist may have a different approach." She also said that Prison Health "revisited our policy" recently and if an inmate has a valid prescription they will continue it.

Dr. Stephen Young, forensic psychiatrist who evaluates inmates for the 7th Judicial Circuit, supports Hager reviewing inmates who come in positive with cocaine and other drugs since those drugs can cause psychosis. He said Hager is articulate, intelligent and "very passionate."

With a shortage of psychiatrists in the community, Young said "here we have a guy who is really smart and we are going to railroad him out of town."

But attorneys at the Public Defender's Office said they still have cases where clients, with documented mental illnesses, are not receiving their medication, which impacts how well attorneys can communicate with and defend their clients.

"We will wait and see if this turns a new page in mental health services at the jail," Public Defender James Purdy said about Hager's resignation.

deborah.circelli@news-jrnl.com

Inmates could serve time in other states

State inmates could find themselves serving their Florida stint in other states under a new idea lawmakers will consider this week.

A proposal would allow the state’s Department of Corrections to “enter into contractual agreements with another state, a political subdivision of another state, or a vendor in another state to transfer and confine Florida inmates …”

DOC spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff said Monday there were no plans to ship any inmates out of state.

“We do not want to do this. We would build tents even before we would do this. Correctional officers don’t want us to do it and certainly the inmates’ families don’t want to do this,” she said.

Still, Rackleff said the bill would give “extra insurance so we won’t have to release dangerous inmates” if the state’s prison population triggers a mandatory release due to overcrowding.

And the plan could have favor among lawmakers who see short-term cost-cutting in sending inmates to other states instead of building new prisons in Florida.

While most states have their own overcrowding issue, prisons run by private for-profit companies have accepted other states’ inmates for years. Florida has never transferred inmates to other states for cost or crowding reasons.

Shifting inmates to other states has been a controversial plan. The mixture of different sets of prisoners accustomed to different sets of rules has led to riots in a number of prisons. And the transfer of inmates away from their families and existing educational programs makes it more difficult for prisoners to prepare for life after their release.

“It’s a horrible idea,” said Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the state’s largest correctional officers union, the Florida Police Benevolent Association. “It compromises safety.”

The state’s prison system is facing a stunning budget cut of $160 million or more as lawmakers struggle to deal with a multi-billion budget hole for all state operations. The DOC could lose 1,400 current employees or more.

-- Joe Follick
jfollick@earthlink.net

Baby Snatcher's Criminal Record May Halt Release

Bob Hazen 03/31/2008 12:09:11


It's a ruling that surprised nearly everyone...a judge has ordered that 39-year-old Jennifer Latham be allowed to leave her Seminole County jail cell as long as she wears a GPS monitor on her ankle. Latham was arrested Friday afternoon on I-4 near Lake Mary after Sanford police say she kidnapped a one-day-old baby from Central Florida Regional Hospital.

"The child was in good shape," says Sanford Police Chief Bryan Tooley. "I want to emphasize, the hospital security did an excellent job in trying to apprehend this woman. She managed to get out the door."

Officials say Latham dressed as a nurse and convinced the newborn's mother that he had to be taken for an eye test. Once Latham had the baby in her arms, she fled the hospital.

The judge based his desicion to let Latham out at least partially on her clean criminal record, but new reports are indicating that her record isn't clean after all. She was apparently arrested for felony theft in Indiana in 2002 under her married name, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

It's unclear at this time if the judge is aware of Latham's previous arrest, or whether it could keep her from being released.

Felons' Voting Requests Pile Up

Florida's Process
To Restore Suffrage
Illustrates Haze

By GARY FIELDS
March 31, 2008; Page A4

MIAMI -- Republican Gov. Charlie Crist went against his party a year ago and made it easier for felons to regain their voting rights. The process has been slow, however -- stirring controversy in a state expected to be closely fought in this fall's elections.

Florida's clemency board has restored voting rights to nearly 75,000 residents. But nearly 96,000 requests are pending, according to information through March 20. Activists say there might be an additional 400,000 people who have been rejected without explanation, making it impossible for them to be reinstated.

The fate of these votes is especially sensitive in Florida, where George W. Bush claimed the presidency by a mere 537 votes in 2000. But similar tensions are playing out across the country, with 5.3 million U.S. citizens unable to vote because of felony convictions -- including four million people who are no longer in prison, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow felons to vote while incarcerated. Thirteen others and the District of Columbia allow inmates to regain the right to vote after their release, according to the Sentencing Project, a Washington advocacy group. Other states limit voting based on factors including the severity of a crime, the completion of probation and the payment of fines.

Restoring the rights of all five million felons who can't vote is complicated by this patchwork system, said University of Florida political scientist Richard Scher, who noted, "There is no uniformity."

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in Tennessee contending that the state's rules amount to a poll tax, a reference to the illegal restrictions imposed during the 1960s. The state requires felons to pay outstanding fines and child support before restoring their votes, something the two advocacy groups say penalizes the poor.

Richard Gooden of Alabama lost his right to vote in 2000 after a drunken-driving conviction. The secretary of state said Mr. Gooden had to appeal through the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles because the felony was considered a crime of "moral turpitude." The board refused his application, saying his crime didn't disqualify him from voting. The stalemate between the two agencies left him unable to register.

The 66-year-old was turned away from the polls in the 1960s when he couldn't recite the Alabama State Constitution by heart, part of a test designed to keep African-Americans from voting. This time, the state's Supreme Court restored his vote.

"You can be in a place where you're eligible to vote but not know you're eligible because of the complexities and disinformation," said Mr. Gooden's lawyer, Ryan Haygood, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

In Florida, churches are hosting rights-restoration sessions. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a group of 40 organizations, is planning a daylong rally for April 1 in Tallahassee. The state's clemency board is trying to reach out to as many people as possible to tell them of the changes. It held 17 hearings across the state and is preparing a leafleting campaign in convenience stores, churches and other well-traveled areas.

Inside the fellowship hall of the Greater Bethel AME Church in the Overtown area of Miami, more than 100 residents with criminal records listened to representatives from the state attorney and public defender offices explain how felons can register.


Those with more-serious crimes worked their way to the table staffed by the ACLU and University of Miami School of Law students. Ricky McGowan, 41 years old, spoke animatedly to one of the students while others lined up, waiting for a free chair. Mr. McGowan, a landscaper, has never voted. He lost his voting rights before he registered because at 18 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. He asked about the process and explained that he is worried an arrest for littering a year ago will further complicate his application.

"I done things I'm not proud of, and I'm different now; I'm a man," he said outside the hall. "But I can't go back and change what I did." Mr. McGowan said he doubts his rights will be restored in time. If he can, he will vote for Sen. Barack Obama. "I like Hillary; Hillary is all right, but Barack, Barack is something different," he said.

The change in Florida was controversial from the start. Mr. Crist's initial proposal was opposed by two Republicans who were members of the executive clemency board, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Secretary of Agriculture Charles Bronson. Mr. Crist revamped the idea, limiting the scope to nonviolent offenders, and Mr. Bronson signed on. To qualify, those felons must have completed their prison term, probation and parole, if applicable, and made any payments the court orders, including child support.

Mr. McCollum, with the backing of law-enforcement organizations, continued to oppose the measure, noting that authorities already had the power to restore voting rights on a case-by-case basis.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general said he has accepted the changes and now is focusing on better preparing inmates for their release.

The new process is simpler than the old method, but some want it to be faster still. It is "unnecessarily complicated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and unnecessarily slow," said Muslima Lewis, director of ACLU Florida's Racial Justice Project.

Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative legal advocacy group, said the old system could have been improved, but the new system goes too far. Each case should be reviewed, he said. "To assume someone has turned over a new leaf because they've walked out of prison doesn't make sense."

Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com1

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Pariente now a Women’s Hall of Famer

Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame at a March 11 Tallahassee ceremony.

Pariente was one of three women added to the hall at the event, and joins Justice Peggy Quince and former justice and current 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Rosemary Barkett.

Pariente was praised by Gov. Charlie Crist at the ceremony for her dedication to helping women and children, especially those involved in the courts, and Pariente used her acceptance talk to further push that goal.

“Having been on the Florida Supreme Court for Bush v. Gore, Terry Schiavo, school vouchers, abortion, and the death penalty, I am convinced that some of the most challenging and complex cases in which we can make a difference are those involving children and families,” Pariente told a crowd of a couple hundred seated in the Capitol courtyard under a giant tent on a cool and sometimes drizzly evening.

“I subscribe to the notion that 100 years from now it will not make a difference what our bank account was or how many awards or honors we received, but that the world can only be better if we make a difference now in the lives of children.”

She also said while she has received many awards over the years, “for me this is the Academy Award of awards.”

Crist noted Pariente’s advocacy of unified family courts, adding, “Your work will leave our judicial system a fairer and more compassionate place for women and children for generations to come.”

Inducted along with Pariente were Dr. Pallavi Patel, a board-certified pediatrician who was born in India and has done extensive medical philanthropy in both India and Zambia and supported the performing arts in Tampa, and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a former state representative and senator who was instrumental in creating the state’s prepaid college tuition program and who plays a major role in U.S. foreign policy as the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The new inductees bring to 74 the number admitted to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame. The hall is run under the auspices of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.

— Courtesy Florida Bar News

Vendor, lawmakers suggest cutting $11 million from prison food deals

By DARA KAM

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

Saturday, March 29, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — Mushy bland broccoli stems accompanied by a greasy mystery meat endowed with undercooked rice is as good as it gets for inmates behind bars.

But, according to the vendor who provides the food and some lawmakers, that's still too good.

They want to cut as much as $11 million from prison food contracts as part of an effort to pare about $3 billion from next year's state budget.

Prison officials fear that cutting the food budget will lower the quality of meals that are already bland and cause unrest among inmates.

Anger about meals is the No. 1 reason for inmate uprisings, according to corrections officials, and menu changes imperil safety for prison guards, inmates and the public in general.

"We think any reduction to (the current menu) that is not a change for health reasons poses a risk to public safety," said Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudhom. "It may sound overly dramatic, but we strongly believe that."

The state pays nearly $79 million per year to two food service vendors - Philadelphia-based Aramark and Oldsmar-based Trinity Services Group Inc. - for the bulk of the food that is purchased for Florida's more than 92,000 inmates.

The state now pays $2.67 for three meals a day for each inmate. Lawmakers in the House want to reduce that cost to $2.30 a day.

Aramark representatives have convinced some lawmakers that the state can save millions by reducing calories fed to inmates. The company wants to go back to a menu it once served that prison officials say was unacceptable.

While the current menu is better then the old one, some inmates still complain about the food.

"I don't eat it. I just come here to give it away," Calvin Mayes, an inmate at Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello, said after a lunch of Spanish rice and broccoli. Instead, he spends about $150 a month at the prison canteen to buy food.

"The quality of the food is substandard," said a relative of an inmate at Marion Correctional Institution in Lowell, who asked not to be named because she feared retaliation against the prisoner. "The preparation is haphazard. They're supposed to wear hairnets and gloves. You find hair in your food and you find a Band-Aid in your food. Things are so overcooked it's mush, or it's not cooked at all."

Sen. Tony Hill recently asked the legislature's Joint Auditing Committee to conduct an investigation into the Aramark contract, and Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis confirmed that the state auditor general is also looking into it.

"When you've got people boycotting the food altogether, that's a problem," said Hill, D-Jacksonville.

Some inmates, like Donald Jones, say the food is the best it has ever been.

But food quality is less important to some lawmakers than saving money for taxpayers. The Senate has proposed slicing $6 million from the current prison food budget, while the House wants to cut $11 million.

"We're talking about substantial savings," Jarvis said. "They way the savings come about is by making better use of the ingredients served. For instance, replace French toast with pancakes."

Jarvis said that Aramark's spending for food has tripled since the initial contract was established in 2001.

Aramark wants to do more than change the menu. The company also is proposing cutting back on the number of workers it provides prisons, shifting the responsibility to corrections officials.

Guards would have to fill in, posing a problem for an already understaffed corrections system that could lose 1,800 guards under the Senate proposal, according to corrections officials.

Since signing a contract with the state seven years ago, Aramark has received mixed reviews. There have been questions about food quality, quantity and potential health violations. At times, the company has been fined by the state for failure to meet the specifications of its contract.

Critics suggest the proposed new contract is really an attempt by Aramark to make more money by paying less for food. The company is paid not by the number of meals consumed but by the number of inmates. If fewer inmates eat the food, Aramark can save money by providing less food.

In February, Aramark-served institutions had an 85 percent participation rate of inmates eating the company's meals. Trinity, which serves food to about one quarter of the state's inmates, had a 97 percent participation rate.

A state audit of the Aramark contract last year found that the participation rates equated to a "windfall for the vendor" and that Aramark substituted low-cost foods, such as turkey instead of beef, without passing the savings on to the state.

Aramark representatives and corrections officials both say those problems have been resolved.

Trinity this month canceled its contract with the state, giving it until August to renegotiate because, the company claims, it is losing money on the deal.

Corrections officials said they will meet with Trinity and Aramark next week to discuss their contracts.

Inside the mind of a ruthless killer

Gary Michael Hilton is an enigma because his profile breaks the mold of a typical serial killer

By Christian Boone and Rhonda Cook
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, ATLANTA
Sunday, Mar 30, 2008, Page 18

Guilty of one murder, charged with another and linked to two more slayings, Gary Michael Hilton appears poised for infamy.

While he doesn't yet qualify as a "serial killer," the Atlanta-born transient captured the attention of FBI profilers within a week of his arrest for the decapitation of Buford, Georgia, hiker Meredith Emerson. They traveled from headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, to observe Hilton during questioning and again when he pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to the murder of Emerson, whom he abducted from Blood Mountain in North Georgia on New Year's Day.

If the evidence against Hilton - he was charged Thursday in the decapitation of Crawfordville, Florida, nurse Cheryl Dunlap - leads to more convictions, their research has only just begun.

In anonymity, Hilton, 61, existed on the margins, drifting through a series of failed relationships, odd jobs and shiftless scams. The Army veteran never adapted to civilian life, often retreating to his van in the woods.

No longer anonymous, Hilton remains an enigma. His advanced age breaks the profiler mold, as serial murderers typically begin killing between 25 and 35 years of age, experts agree.

"This guy didn't just fall off the turnip truck and start doing this," said retired FBI profiler Clint van Zandt.

Criminologist Eric Hickey, director of forensic studies at Alliant International University in Fresno, California, said he expects Hilton's predatory behavior began well before October, 2007, when the erstwhile subcontractor is alleged to have abducted and murdered avid hikers John and Irene Bryant. Transylvania (North Carolina) County Sheriff David Mahoney said there is "no question" Hilton was responsible for the elderly couple's deaths.

"It's almost unprecedented to see someone go from zero to what he did," Hickey said. "I'd suspect he could be linked to several other crimes."

Officials in Pickens County, South Carolina, are waiting until North Carolina completes its investigation of Hilton before pursuing him as a possible suspect in the abduction of Clemson University student Jason Knapp, last seen on Easter 10 years ago. Investigators said Knapp's fingerprints were on a ticket admitting him to Table Rock State Park.

Noel Talley, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Justice, confirmed Hilton is a suspect in Rossana Miliani's disappearance but declined to offer more details. Miliani was last seen Dec. 7, 2005, near Bryson City, North Carolina Some said she was with a white man in his 60s, and the young woman appeared nervous.

Beyond his age, Hilton fits many of the characteristics shared by serial killers. Renowned criminologist Steven Egger's criteria include no relationship to the victim and a minimum of two murders, though some experts say three killings are a better indicator.

The slayings typically occur at different locales - Hilton is linked to crimes in three states so far - though the victims often share characteristics such as gender or age. The motivation is not financial, Egger said, though Hilton told the GBI that's why he killed Emerson.

"Money was a secondary issue," Hickey said. "This was about power. When you consider his comfort in the woods, that is where he felt most powerful, and that's why he killed them where he did."

Why he killed is the greater mystery.

At about the same time the Bryants were murdered, Hilton's life was changing dramatically. In September 2007, his longtime employer, John Tabor, succumbed to Hilton's demands for US$2,500.

Hilton's behavior had become increasingly erratic, Tabor said, and he paid him off in hopes of severing their already fractured relationship.

"This is systemic behavior with most of these guys," Hickey said. "He feels like the world is against him. There's issues of rejection, abandonment. Killing becomes his focus."

But Hilton got sloppy, especially in disposing of clues linking him to Emerson's death. He was arrested at a Chamblee gas station and convenience store near a busy intersection after being spotted dumping loads of sleeping bags, backpacks, bedrolls and blankets into a Dumpster.

"Narcissism is not uncommon for such antisocial personality disorders," said Joe Davis, a veteran profiler and forensic psychologist based out of San Diego. "He likes the attention he's getting."

While all four of the bodies Hilton could be connected with were left in dense forests, they were still somewhat conspicuous.

Hilton led authorities to Emerson's body on the condition they not seek the death penalty. Hunters in Florida and North Carolina, respectively, discovered Dunlap's and Bryant's corpses mere meters from unpaved hunting trails.

"I suspect he wanted them to be found," Hickey said. "He wants to be heard. He wants to frighten people. He wants to show his power. To him, it's really about having a voice."

Man convicted in decade-old murder

DAYTONA BEACH — The man accused in a 1997 murder was found guilty this afternoon by jurors who only took about an hour to make a decision.

Gregory Earl Murphy, 45, now faces the death penalty after being found guilty of a count of first-degree murder. The penalty phase begins Wednesday.

DNA evidence linked Murphy to the April 13, 1997, stabbing, strangling and hammer-blow slaying of Erleen Albright, 39, in her Pleasant Street apartment. Murphy's arrest in 2006 marked the first since Daytona Beach police created a cold case unit.

Murphy took the stand on Thursday and claimed self-defense, saying Albright was high on cocaine and came at him with a knife.

In the penalty phase, the jury will recommend life or death to Circuit Judge J. David Walsh, who will determine Murphy’s fate. Judges rarely go against jury recommendations in such sentences.

Albright’s body was found in 1997 by her then-17-year-old son Tony Bobbit, a Mainland High School basketball star and current pro player overseas.

Ruling: Bush can't order hearing for condemned Mexican

BY DAVE MONTGOMERY
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday against President Bush in a far-reaching legal dispute with his home state, concluding that the president can't order Texas courts to conduct a new hearing for a Mexican national who's on Death Row.
In a 6-3 decision, the court sided with the state of Texas in denying an appeal for José Ernesto Medellín, who's on Texas' Death Row for the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston 15 years ago.

The case had broad international reach and threatened to strain relations further between the United States and Mexico. The Mexican Embassy in Washington expressed disappointment with the ruling.

Bush was cast in an unlikely legal alliance with Medellín by insisting that Texas abide by an international treaty that requires those arrested abroad to have access to their country's consular officials. Medellín asserts that he was denied access to Mexican representatives.

In the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the justices upheld a 2006 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which held that Bush overstepped his constitutional authority through ''an intrusive exercise of power'' over the Texas court system.

Roberts said that the president's authority, ''as with the exercise of any governmental power,'' stemmed from an act of Congress or the Constitution. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

The ruling marked a victory for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office argued that Medellín waited too long to invoke his treaty claim and was grasping at the issue to avoid execution in a brutal crime that rocked Houston in 1993.

''Now, 15 years after two innocent teenage girls were brutally gang-raped and murdered, their grieving families are a step closer to justice,'' Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz said.

New York attorney Donald Frances Donovan, who represented Medellín at the request of the Mexican government, was traveling out of the country and unavailable to discuss his next legal step. But in a statement through his office, Donovan said the ruling constituted a ``departure from the original intent of the Constitution and over 200 years of enforcement of treaties by U.S. courts.''

Medellín, 33, remains at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, one of 368 Death Row inmates, including nine women, who are awaiting execution in the state.

Texas, like other states, has a de facto moratorium on executions until the Supreme Court rules on a case from two Kentucky Death Row inmates challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections. Roe Wilson, a prosecutor in the Harris County district attorney's office, said the office wouldn't proceed with seeking an execution date for Medellín until after a ruling in the lethal-injection case.

Florida Legislature makes formal apology for slavery

By Josh Hafenbrack and John Kennedy

Sun-Sentinel.com

2:36 PM EDT, March 26, 2008

TALLAHASSEE

In a watershed moment in Florida's race relations, a solemn state Legislature on Wednesday apologized for the Florida's long history of slavery, expressing "profound regret for the shameful chapter in this state's history."

Described as a bid for "reconciliation and healing," the House this afternoon passed a resolution apologizing for state slavery laws dating back to 1822 – decades became Florida even became a state – that "perpetuated African slavery in one of its most brutal and dehumanizing forms."

Earlier, the Senate passed the same resolution with Gov. Charlie Crist looking on.

Legislators in both chambers sat in silence as historian John Phelps, a former House clerk, read a summary of state laws from the 19th Century that denied even basic freedoms to slaves.

Slaves could be subject to 39 lashes of a whip, administered to a bare back, for raising a hand or addressing a white person with language deemed to be abusive or offensive. For crimes as common as robbery, slaves could have their ears nailed to wooden posts for an hour or even be sentenced to death.

By 1860, at the onset of the Civil War and more than 50 years after slavery was outlawed in federal law, some 44 percent of Florida's 140,000 residents were slaves.

Florida becomes the sixth state to apologize for slavery, following Maryland and other Confederacy states Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. In January, New Jersey became the first northern state to apologize for its role in slavery.

At the Capitol, Crist initially said that while the apology was important, the state should consider offering financial reparations to descendants of slaves. But he quickly backed away from that stance.

"Certainly it's something you'd like to be able to do," Crist said. "Obviously, in a difficult budgetary time, it's a challenging thing. But I just want to focus on the good thing that has happened today...It's a significant step."

Crist added that he was especially moved by descriptions of the cruelty of slave times.

"I don't think you could listen to some of the punishents that were meted out in the past...without being moved by it," Crist said. "The cruel nature and the unimaginable penalties that were described."

In Florida, the move was promoted by Sen. Tony Hill, a black Jacksonville Democrat, who worked with ruling Republicans in the House and Senate to craft the resolution. Similar measures have stirred some controversy in other states, notably Virginia where a white lawmaker said "black citizens should get over" slavery.

But in the Florida Senate, Phelps' reading was met by respectful silence. Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, wiped away a tear as Phelps spoke.

"I hope that it begins a dialogue, and we can talk more about what happened. We need more discussion about race," Joyner said. "And I think this lays the groundwork for further discussion."

The resolution pointed out that although slave-era laws are gone, they shouldn't be forgotten.

"Even though the laws permitting such injustice have been repealed," the resolution concluded, "it is important the Legislature expresses profound regret for the shameful chapter in this state's history and, in so doing, promote healing and reconciliation among all Floridians."

From the House and Senate floors, Phelps read an 1861 letter from Florida Gov. Richard Keith Call describing a black man as "an animal in the form of a man, possessing the greatest physical power, and the greatest capacity for labor and endurance ... a wild barbarian, to be tamed and civilized by the discipline of slavery."

Former Gov. LeRoy Collins is largely credited as the politician who fought segregation and promoted more opportunity for blacks in Florida in the late 1950s. Collins was among the first New South politicians who fought for racial justice, but was never again elected to political office after serving his final term as governor.

After the Civil War, Florida's Constitution of 1868 guaranteed blacks the right to vote and abolished slavery in the state. But Florida's unequal treatment of blacks continued with Jim Crow laws in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Georgia man convicted in 1997 Daytona Beach killing

Associated Press - March 25, 2008 6:04 AM ET

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A Florida jury has found a Georgia man guilty of first degree murder in the brutal death of a Daytona Beach woman inside her home in 1997.

Authorities say Gregory Earl Murphy choked and stabbed Erlene Albright, then struck her in the head with a hammer and sexually battered her.

The murder went unsolved for years, but DNA evidence linked Murphy to the crime in 2003.

Defense attorneys say Murphy killed the woman in self-defense because she had attacked him with a knife after the two hit it off at a club earlier that night.

The jury will decide tomorrow whether Murphy gets life in prison or the death penalty.


Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com

Infection Kills Fla. Jail Inmate

Inmate Dorothy Dian Palinchik was diagnosed with a MRSA infection and pneumonia.

Feb 29, 08 3:14 PM CST AP Online

A woman arrested for allegedly stealing a $9 sandwich from a grocery store appeared in good health when she was booked into the Pinellas County Jail. She was dead two weeks later after aggressive infection ravaged her body.

Dorothy Dian Palinchik, 42, died Thursday. Doctors determined she was suffering from pneumonia and the notorious drug-resistant staph known as MRSA.

While her family suspects she got the illness in jail, officials declined to comment on specifics of her care. They said only that she didn't show symptoms when she was booked and an investigation and autopsy were ordered.

Before her arrest, Palinchik worked as a waitress, did odd jobs and seemed in good health, said her mother, Dorothy Helen Palinchik.

"It was terrible," she said. The family is considering a lawsuit.

Palinchik was arrested Feb. 13 after authorities alleged she stole a $9 Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Her boyfriend, Michael Mullican, offered to pay her $250 bail, but she declined, saying she'd rather serve her time.

She had a fever within days of entering the jail, Mullican said. He said Palinchik could barely lift her head when he visited her Feb. 21. Palinchik was taken by ambulance to Largo Medical Center, where she died after being placed in a medically induced coma, her hands and feet blackened by disease.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, can appear in cramped quarters, including jails, hospitals, schools and nursing homes. Studies estimate that while staph inhabits 20 to 30 percent of the population, only about 1 percent carry the antibiotic-resistant MRSA strain.

Paralyzed Man Gets New Attorney

By MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 8, 2008

Brian Sterner, the paralyzed man who was dumped out of a wheelchair by a Hillsborough County jail deputy, has retained a new attorney to represent him, according to the sheriff's office.

Tampa lawyer Michael Maddux notified the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Friday he would be replacing Largo lawyer John Trevena as the former inmate's attorney, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

When contacted by The Tampa Tribune, Trevena said he remains Sterner's attorney of record and declined further comment.

Outside his home Friday evening, Sterner also declined to comment.

Maddux said he was hired by Sterner on Thursday.

"The conditions of me getting hired I'm not getting into," he said. He said the details are confidential.

Sterner, 32, is paralyzed from the chest down. On Jan. 29, he was arrested on a traffic-related warrant and brought to Orient Road Jail. He was searched by then-Detention Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones. A surveillance camera recorded her grabbing the back of the wheelchair and dumping Sterner to the floor before he was searched.

The video spread across the Internet, prompting an outcry from the public and the formation of an independent jail review board. Marshall-Jones was charged with felony adult abuse and resigned.

Reporter Josh Poltilove and News Channel 8 reporter Samara Sodos contributed to this report. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells @tampatrib.com.

Woman Who Fell Ill At Jail Dies In Hospital, Boyfriend Says

By STEPHEN THOMPSON of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 28, 2008

LARGO -- Dorothy Palinchik, the 42-year-old waitress whose family alleges she did not receive adequate health care at Pinellas County Jail, died today at Largo Medical Center, according to her live-in boyfriend.

Her diagnosis was a combination of pneumonia and a type of staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics, family members said. Her time of death was 4:14 p.m., according to the hospital and family members.

The day before Valentine's Day, Palinchik was booked into Pinellas County Jail on charges she had stolen a $9.20 Philly steak sandwich from a Publix supermarket, said Palinchik's mother, whose name is also Dorothy.

Nine days later, she left the jail in an ambulance.

Palinchik's family and boyfriend think she got sick at the jail and that the staff there is responsible for her condition.

"They didn't give her proper medical care," said her mother. "I just don't think they wanted to deal with it."

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the jail, has a detention investigative unit that has started looking into the matter, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. Such probes are launched whenever someone leaves the jail in a deteriorating health condition, Pasha said.

Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats said it was too early to tell whether his staff did anything inappropriate, but he defended the quality of health care at the jail and the conditions there in general. The budget for inmate health care is $21 million, with roughly $2 million for pharmaceuticals, he said.

"A lot of these inmates, they've had little or no health care maintenance in their lives," Coats said. "We don't know what ailments they may or may not have and a lot of time we have to rely on what they tell us, or don't tell us."

Palinchik was accused of ordering the sandwich at the Publix in downtown St. Petersburg at dinnertime, and of walking out without paying for it, according to an arrest affidavit. She was charged with petty theft, with bail set at $250.

Palinchik's boyfriend, Michael Mullican, said he was out of town working as a truck driver in the Miami area when she was jailed. When he visited her at the jail's video visitation center Feb. 21, eight days after she was booked, she looked terrible, he said.

"The next time I saw her was Saturday afternoon on a ventilator at Largo Medical Center," Mullican said.

Pasha, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said Palinchik was transferred from a regular wing at the jail to a medical wing Feb. 21, the same day Mullican visited her, and the next evening she was transported by ambulance to Largo Medical Center.

Roger Sanderson, an epidemiologist with the Florida Department of Health, described Palinchik's staph affliction, technically called staph MRSA, as one that can be passed on through a simple handshake. People may be carrying it for months or years in their noses and sinuses without knowing it, until it is triggered by simply rubbing one's nose then touching a small cut, he said.

MRSA can cause infections in the heart valves and in the bones, Sanderson said. An infection in the lungs causes pneumonia.

"MRSA pneumonias are well known and they can have a fairly high fatality rate," Sanderson said. "Cases like this do happen. People with signs of pneumonia need to get to their physician right away.

"This is not something unique to jails," Sanderson said. "It can happen anywhere."


Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

Paralysed inmate claims abuse

Florida - Another paralysed inmate claims deputies tipped him out of his wheelchair onto a Tampa jailhouse floor, just weeks after video of a similar dumping at the same facility prompted a firestorm of criticism.

Attorney John Trevena said the incident involving his client, Benjamin Rayburn, 32, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, also was captured on videotape.

"There is widespread abuse of inmates," Trevena said. "It's not limited to Hillsborough County Jail. It's just that the Hillsborough County Jail maintains very detailed video archives inside the jail."

The Hillsborough Sheriff's Office didn't respond to telephone messages left by The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The allegations come just weeks after another deputy was charged with one count of felony abuse of a disabled person after video showed her dumping a paralysed man on the floor. Trevena also represents that inmate, Brian Sterner.

The latest incident happened October 3 2006, after Rayburn had a glass crack pipe inside the jail, and swung the pipe at a deputy, according to a sheriff's report obtained by the St Petersburg Times.

Rayburn then threw the pipe, which shattered, striking another deputy in the back of the head. Deputies then "relocated Rayburn from his wheelchair to the holding cell floor", according to the report.

After the incident, investigators charged Rayburn with aggravated assault, battery on a law enforcement officer and introducing contraband into a county detention centre, the report said.

Rayburn is paralysed from the chest down, Trevena said.

Death Penalty Sought In 2 Murder Cases

By Dan Fearson of Highlands Today

Published: March 20, 2008

SEBRING — Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they will seek the death penalty against Edgar Michael Otero, who is facing charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Otero was indicted in January by a Highlands County Grand Jury in connection to the November 2006 murder of Alexa Hall, a 3-month-old girl.

Originally, investigators thought that Hall died of shaken baby syndrome, but an autopsy by the District 13

Medical Examiner's Office in Hillsborough County later showed that she died of blunt force trauma.
On the morning of Nov. 12, Brandy Hall, the baby's mother, and Otero, reportedly brought the child in to the Florida Hospital emergency room for an unknown sickness.

According to Otero's arrest report, Hall was brain dead.

Hospital officials decided the baby needed to be airlifted to St. Joseph's Hospital, where she was eventually taken off life-support.

Otero has been held in the Highlands County Jail since November without bond.

Avon Park Shooting

Prosecutors will also be seeking the death penalty against Donald Alfonso Henry, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, in connection to the shooting death of Hugh Andrew Marks Jan. 7.

Marks' body was found lying on the ground near the intersection of Garrett Road and Alabama Avenue, in Avon Park.

After a warrant was issued for Henry's arrest, he reportedly fled Highlands County, eventually turning himself in to the Orlando Police Department.

On Jan. 16, Vackara Darnell Massaline, 31, was also arrested on a charge of accessory after the fact in the murder of Marks. Investigators believe that Massaline helped Henry following Marks' murder.

Henry is currently being held in the Highlands County Jail without bond.

Jury wants death for Phillup Partin, girl's killer

Phillup Alan Partin sits in the courtroom Wednesday, listening to his attorneys Bjorn Brunvand, left, and William Bennett

By Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 8:13 PM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW PORT RICHEY — Robert Ramsdell remembers that day five years ago when he first saw his stepdaughter's killer in a Pasco courtroom.

A defiant Phillup Alan Partin showed off the tattoo across his shoulders, the one he got during his year on the run from law enforcement:

"Live free or die."

Words to live by, the stepfather said.

"He's not going to live forever," Mr. Ramsdell said Wednesday. "He may as well kill himself now."

That's because a jury decided on Wednesday that the state of Florida should take Partin's life for taking 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook's life in 2002.

It took the jury of eight men and four women three hours on Tuesday to convict Partin of first-degree murder. It took them two hours on Wednesday to vote 9-3 in favor of the death penalty instead of life in prison.

Partin, 42, reacted as he has throughout his two-week trial: with a cold, blank stare and an air of hostile indifference.

In fact, the trial revealed that the only thing Partin seems to care about in this world is his 12-year-old daughter, Patrisha.

Is Partin both a cold killer and a caring father?

"How can he love his little girl," said the victim's mother, Tara Lynn Ramsdell, "and not care what he did to mine?"

The trial, or guilt phase, took seven days. Wednesday's penalty phase was brief by comparison.

The state's lone witness was a Miami-Dade police lieutenant who testified about Partin's first murder two decades ago, when he snapped the neck of a Miami man. The lieutenant said Partin hustled at gay bars then, which is how he met that victim.

In 1987, Partin was sentenced to 17 years in prison for second-degree murder. But he was released in 1995.

Joshan (pronounced Yo-shan) also had her neck broken, a medical examiner testified, separating her head from her spine. Her throat was also cut open.

No one testified on Partin's behalf. No family members have even come to court. Instead, the defense played snippets of videotaped depositions on his behalf.

They played just a few seconds of a tape of Partin's daughter, who testified for the state that she saw the victim alive with her father.

In the tape, defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand showed the girl a hand sign that she and her father used to share.

"Is that what the two of you used to say 'I love you' to each other?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," the girl said.

• • •

The jury's vote for the death penalty is a recommendation. State law says the judge must give it "great weight."

In the end, it will be Circuit Judge William Webb's decision alone. Partin's lawyers will try to persuade the judge to override the jury's recommendation at a May 16 hearing.

Partin doesn't appear to like the judge. He's insulted Webb in jailhouse letters and on Wednesday directed profanities at him.

The judge will sentence Partin on June 20.

• • •

The Ramsdells have eight children, 17 grandchildren and one more on the way. Those children have questions their grandparents cannot answer.

"We have grandchildren who want to know why the bad guy killed Auntie Yo-Yo," Tara Ramsdell said, "and what do you say to them? He's not going to say anything to us. I want him to tell me why."

The state said the motive for Joshan's murder is a mystery that may never be solved.

The mother of Partin's daughter said she is conflicted about the death penalty. "How's his daughter going to feel," she said, "not being able to see her father again?"

Given Partin's feelings about being living free, the mother said, she wonders if a worse punishment would be to let him live out his days behind bars.

"Sometimes I think so," Mrs. Ramsdell said. "But I'm Joshan's mother. I say kill him."

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6236.

Officer faces jail for tipping paraplegic man out of chair

These video images show Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones pushing Brian Sterner, 32, in his wheelchair before dumping him on the floor in order to search him

By Stephen Foley
Monday, 18 February 2008
The Independent, United Kingdom

A Florida prison officer who dumped a paraplegic man out of his
wheelchair in order to search him could be jailed after being charged
with abuse of a disabled person.

Surveillance video footage showing the behaviour of Charlette
Marshall-Jones, a sheriff's deputy at the Hillsborough county
detention centre in Tampa, caused national outrage when it was picked
up by the news channels and posted on YouTube.

After repeatedly having asked Brian Sterner, 32, who has been
paralysed from the waist down since a wrestling accident 13 years
ago, to stand up to be searched, Deputy Marshall-Jones is shown
tipping him on to the floor as if unloading a wheelbarrow. Other
officers look on and one walks away smiling, as Mr Sterner is
searched while still lying on the floor. Four officers, including Ms
Marshall-Jones, have been suspended while the incident is
investigated, and the deputy faces five years in jail if convicted of
abuse. She was bailed at the weekend.

Mr Sterner, who drives a car fitted with hand pedals, had been
arrested for a traffic offence. In a national television appearance,
he said: "Hopefully, that's what will come out of this, that this
negative way of dealing with life and people will change."

Dozens of children in U.S. face life in prison

By Matthew Bigg

ALABASTER, Alabama (Reuters) - Underage criminals cannot face the death penalty in the United States but dozens of offenders imprisoned for crimes committed when they were young teenagers will still die behind bars.

The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for minors in 2005 but 19 states permit "life-means-life" sentences for those under 18, according to a study by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

In all, 2,225 people are sentenced to die in U.S. prisons for crimes they committed as minors and 73 of them were aged 13 and 14 at the time of the crime, according to the group, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama.

Elsewhere in the world, life sentences with no chance of parole are rare for underage offenders. Human Rights Watch estimates that only 12 people outside the United States face such sentences.

Judicial reform advocates say the U.S. provision is an example of how harsh sentences have helped cause a jump in incarceration rates since the 1970s. The United States jails a higher percentage of its population than anywhere else in the industrialized world, these advocates say.

"These kids have been swept up in this tide of carceral control that is unparalleled in American history," said Bryan Stevenson, director of the EJI. "We have become quite comfortable about throwing people away," he said.

Others defend the statute, arguing it is popular with voters and gives comfort to victims to know that perpetrators of serious crimes against them will not one day walk free.

They also use an "adult crime, adult time" argument -- minors who commit adult crimes should be punished as adults.

"I SAW HER IN FLAMES"

The case of Ashley Jones, who was 14 when she killed, illustrates the seriousness of many crimes that result in for-life sentences.

One night in August 1999, Jones and her 16-year-old boyfriend, Geramie Hart, angered by her family's disapproval of their relationship, went to her home in Birmingham, Alabama. They set her grandfather on fire with lighter fluid, stabbed him and shot him dead.

They also stabbed and shot dead Jones' aunt in her bedroom and set her grandmother on fire.

Jones' 10-year-old sister, Mary, was asleep in bed but they dragged her to the kitchen to see the attack on her family.

"I had to sit there and watch her (Ashley) torture my grandmother. I saw her in flames," said Mary Jones, recounting her ordeal in an interview in Alabaster, Alabama.

"Geramie ... picked me up by my neck and pointed a gun at me and said: 'This is how you are going to die.' Ashley said: 'No, wait. I'll do her.'"

They stabbed Mary Jones repeatedly, puncturing a lung, and drove off leaving her and her grandmother, whose injuries included burns, stab and gunshot wounds, to stagger outside.

The questions raised by criminal cases involving teenagers are difficult to answer.

Is a young teenager responsible for crimes in the same way as an adult and to what extent, if at all, should courts consider a minor's family situation and background?

"It goes against human inclinations to give up completely on a young teenager. It's impossible for a court to say that any 14-year-old never has the possibility to live in society," said Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

"LOST ALL HOPE"

The Equal Justice Initiative has filed suits in six states challenging the life-without-parole sentences and has brought a case in federal court in northern Alabama over the Jones case, arguing it represents cruel and unusual punishment.

Hart is also serving the same sentence.

The group says a disproportionate number of the minors serving the sentence are black or Hispanic and many were tried as adults with inadequate legal counsel. Also, it says up to 70 percent were given mandatory sentences.

Not all those serving life-means-life sentences for crimes committed as minors are convicted killers.

Antonio Nunez was convicted of multiple counts of attempted murder and also aggravated kidnapping and sentenced to life without parole for his role in a kidnap, police chase and shootout in April, 2001, in which nobody was injured.

Nunez, aged 14 at the time of the crime, grew up in a part of Los Angeles where gang activity was common. In 2000, he was wounded and his brother killed in a gang-related shooting.

His sister Cindy Nunez said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles the life sentence devastated her family.

"He has lost all hope .... We try to keep his spirits up by saying something will change in the law," she said.

Mary Jones, now 19, is attempting to reconstruct her life. She testified against her sister in court but has visited her in jail. She blames Hart for changing her sister from "the sweetest girl" into a murderer.

"She should have a chance to have a life. Her life shouldn't just be taken away from her like that. Sometimes I'm kind of mad and then I'm sad," she said. "I practically lost her too because she is in prison."

(Reporting by Matthew Bigg; Editing by Michael Christie and Eddie Evans)

Jail Inmate Complains Marshall-Jones Abused Her

Tammy Lynn Mojica

By JOSH POLTILOVE of The Tampa Tribune, FL
Published: February 20, 2008

TAMPA - An internal affairs investigation is looking into a
Falkenburg Road Jail inmate's complaint that Charlette Marshall-
Jones, the detention deputy who dumped a quadriplegic man from his
wheelchair in January, also abused her last month.

"She snatched me by the back of my head and slammed me into the
wall," Tammy Lynn Mojica told the Tribune during a phone call today
from jail.

On Jan. 29, a video camera recorded Marshall-Jones raising the back
of a wheelchair, spilling quadriplegic Brian Sterner onto the floor.
Sterner, 32, of Riverview, was booked at the jail on a warrant
stemming from a traffic violation.

Marshall-Jones, 44, submitted her resignation Friday. She was
arrested Saturday on a charge of abuse of a disabled person. She
posted $3,500 bail and was released.

Mojica said Marshall-Jones abused her Jan. 10, when she was booked
into Orient Road Jail. Mojica is now in Falkenburg.

"Any time we have an allegation of excessive use of force, it's going
to be investigated," said Col. David Parrish, who runs Orient Road
Jail. "There are two deputies who are involved in the incident – from
my review of the report that was written."

Parrish would not discuss specifics and said video of Mojica being
booked would not be made available since it is part of an active
investigation.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said an internal affairs
investigation is ongoing, but she would not discuss the investigation
or the incident.

Marshall-Jones' mother, Alma Marshall, declined to comment. Marshall-
Jones' attorney, Norman Cannella, said he wasn't familiar with
Mojica's complaint.

"I haven't got the slightest idea of what you speak about, not the
slightest," he said. "I'm not going to bother to tell [Marshall-
Jones] anything about this since I don't have the slightest idea what
you're talking about."

The state attorney's office filed charges of cocaine possession,
possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug
paraphernalia against Mojica following her Jan. 10 arrest, state
attorney's spokeswoman Pam Bondi said.

A separate charge of introduction of contraband into a detention
facility was considered but was deemed "duplicitous and not necessary
to the prosecution of the case," Bondi said.

Separately, Mojica has the following charges pending against her:
grand theft third-degree, possession of drug paraphernalia and
driving with a suspended license, Bondi said.

Mojica, 34, of Wimauma, said she didn't want to discuss charges
against her.

She said her incident involving Marshall-Jones began about 2:30 p.m.
Jan. 10 when she initially appeared in the jail. Marshall-Jones
believed Mojica had eaten something and took her into a bathroom to
search her, Mojica said.

As soon as Mojica entered the bathroom, Marshall-Jones attacked her,
she said. "My right hand and wrist was bent backwards," Mojica
said. "My thumb was dislocated. It's still bruised."

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office narrative last month of the
incident says: Marshall-Jones saw a 4-inch glass pipe near Mojica,
then led Mojica to a restroom to strip search her. Mojica placed an
unknown white powdery substance in her mouth and tried swallowing it,
Marshall-Jones said.

Marshall-Jones tried extracting the substance with her bare right
hand and called for help from Deputy Richard Sergi. Marshall-Jones
removed her hand from Mojica's mouth, put on a blue rubber glove and
tried again to remove the substance. Her attempts failed, but her
hand and glove tested positive for cocaine.

During the process, Sergi stuck his thumb in Mojica's mouth "and was
exposed to a mixture of blood and saliva," Marshall-Jones said in an
incident report.

The report doesn't indicate if Mojica was injured or taken to a
hospital.

Sterner's attorney, John Trevena, said he isn't surprised by Mojica's
complaint against Marshall-Jones. Trevena's office has been "crushed"
with calls from people claiming they have been abused by jail and
prison guards locally and nationally.

Mojica said she was taken to a hospital before being booked about 7
p.m. that day and later spent about a week in a jail infirmary.

"I don't know why she was so manhandling," Mojica said. "I don't know
why she abused me the way she did. I didn't get a battery on [a law
enforcement officer charge], so that proves I didn't fight her. I
shouldn't have had a busted lip. I shouldn't have been talked to like
a dog."

A separate recently released video shows a detention deputy striking
inmate Marcella Pourmoghani-Esfahani, the woman's lawyer said.
Pourmoghani-Esfahani is shown in the video being struck by a deputy
in the holding area of the jail on Nov. 11, 2006. Her attorney
released the video Monday and said he has filed a federal civil
rights lawsuit against the deputy, the sheriff and the county.

Steve Yerrid, a longtime plaintiff's lawyer in Hillsborough County,
said he is not surprised that several people are making complaints
against jail staff right now. When a negative incident, such as
Sterner's drop from the wheelchair, gets high publicity, it's not
uncommon for many similar complaints to arise.

"It's amazing to watch the publicity in terms of awareness," Yerrid
said. "The public's right to know often results in a momentum. The
momentum right now is that anyone who has ever had a problem with law
enforcement and is contemplating action is going to take action right
now."

That does not mean that the individual complaints or lawsuits will
have a greater chance of a successful outcome.

"The bottom line is what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate
has to happen on a case-by-case basis," Yerrid said. "Just because
there is an avalanche of cases won't change the merit of each case."

By and large, Yerrid said, law enforcement acts appropriately. That
doesn't mean there aren't exceptions, he said. Similarly, people do
file frivolous lawsuits, over-blowing minor incidents, Yerrid said.
That is not to say that some lawsuits have merit and represent
significant abuses of power, he said.

In the wheelchair incident, Sheriff David Gee almost immediately
condemned the deputy's actions. Yerrid said Gee's comments are
commendable.

"That's what you want to have," he said, "not absolute blanket denial
every time."

The fact that Gee admitted sheriff's office responsibility for
Sterner's complaint also gives weight to Gee's integrity when he
denies abuse in other complaints about his deputies, Yerrid said.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause contributed to this report. Reporter Josh
Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-
7691.

Woman 'beaten'at same police station as man dumped out of wheelchair

by ryan dded (Posted by The Last MoveMent)
OpEdNews, PA

CCTV: This is the same police station where a female police officer
dumped a man from his wheelchair. Marcella Pourmoghani claims she was
beaten by a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office detention deputy badly
enough that she had to be taken from the jail to a hospital.

Pourmoghani has filed a federal lawsuit. After seeing what happened to
Brian Sterner, the wheelchair-bound quadriplegic, dumped from his chair
at the same jail facility, Marcella Pourmoghani is speaking out.

Polk deputies charged with delivering drugs to inmate

The Associated Press

8:02 AM EDT, March 21, 2008

BARTOW

Central Florida sheriff's officials say two detention deputies were arrested after an investigation found they delivered marijuana to an inmate in jail.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office says authorities believe detention deputy Michael T. Redmond, 23, delivered the drugs to inmate Freddie Street and detention deputy Jarrett R. Brice, 34, helped with the deliveries.

Investigators believe Street's girlfriend, Latifah Bilal, 25, gave the drugs to Redmond. She is also facing charges.

Both deputies resigned. Jail officials did not answer calls to determine whether the three had lawyers.

Suspect in lawyer's death denied bail

Tony Villegas is accused of strangling Melissa Lewis.

BY TODD WRIGHT

Tony Villegas was denied bail Thursday morning during his first appearance in front of a Broward judge in the murder of a Fort Lauderdale attorney earlier this month.
The 44-year-old railroad engineer only answered ''Yes, sir'' to several quick questions by Broward Circuit Court Judge Lee Jay Seidman, who wanted to make sure the suspect understood the charges against him.

Villegas appeared by closed-circuit television and was formally charged with premeditated first-degree murder in the death of 39-year-old Melissa Britt Lewis -- a crime punishable by the death penalty.

GRAND JURY BOUND

The case could go before a grand jury next week.

Police allege that on the night of March 5, Villegas strangled Lewis and dumped her body into a canal.

Lewis was a close friend of Villegas' estranged wife, Debra Villegas, who worked with Melissa at the law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.

Villegas, who formerly lived in Sunrise and Weston, was arrested early Saturday at his sister's house in North Miami-Dade.

He maintains that he was framed.

Authorities have released little information about a motive.

However, his estranged wife Debra Villegas contends that her husband was jealous of her close friendship with Lewis. The former couple, already separated, were in the midst of a bitter divorce.

Among the evidence police have linking him to the crime are records tracking Lewis' iPhone to Tony Villegas' residence in North Miami-Dade, and signs that Villegas tried to find out how to remove traces of Mace from his hands.

Authorities said Lewis was strangled inside her garage, where investigators found Mace residue and a button from her suit jacket.

FINAL STOP

She was last seen the evening of March 5 at a Plantation Publix, where she had gone shopping after work.

Her Cadillac sport utility vehicle was found abandoned in a parking lot near her home. Lewis' body was discovered March 7 in a canal near State Road 84 and Pine Island Road.

The Miami Herald has filed a motion to have the search and arrest warrants and affidavits pertaining to the case unsealed.

No date has been set for the motion to be heard.

Police asked a judge to have the documents sealed because the investigation is ongoing.

Woman Describes Night Girl Was Killed in Romeo House

ASHLEY WILSON, a witness for the prosecution, cries as she testifies Thursday during the trial of Edward Romeo, who's charged with murder in the death of Rachael Martina. Wilson described seeing the girl's body. EDWARD ROMEO, left, listens to his lawyer, Bob Norgard, during his murder trial Thursday in Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter's courtroom in Bartow. Romeo is charged in the death of Rachael Martina.

Ashley Wilson was 13 when Rachael Martina was slain and buried in backyard.
By Shoshana Walter
THE LEDGER
Write an email to Shoshana WalterShoshana Walter
Police Reporter
Dept.: Metro Desk
(863) 802-7590
shoshana.walter@theledger.com

BARTOW It seemed like a normal evening for then-13-year-old Ashley Wilson.

With her mother out with her boyfriend, she knew she would be home alone for some time. So she got a ride to the Romeo household.

Aside from the two Romeo brothers, whom she knew through her older brother, there was no adult supervision at the house. Friends came and went as they pleased. Wilson hung out there often.

But that night in May 1999, Wilson said, Edward Romeo strangled a 16-year-old runaway named Rachael Martina, then joked about killing her and with help from his brother buried her in their backyard.

Police did not find out what happened until 2004, when Edward Romeo was arrested in the death of his brother Robert Romeo, and people began coming forward with information about Martina's death. Edward Romeo is serving 25 years in prison for killing his brother.

The State Attorney's Office identified Wilson in 2004 as one of the only living witnesses to the events of that night.

Romeo, 30, is on trial for Martina's death and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Referring to Edward Romeo as "Eddie," Wilson, now 22, told a jury Thursday morning the story of the night Martina was killed.

Only she, Martina and Robert and Edward Romeo were in the house that night, she said.

Earlier that evening, she said Edward Romeo had talked to her about his plan to strangle Martina with a leather rope he had slung loosely around his neck. But because Wilson thought the two were dating, she assumed he was just joking and "letting off steam."

She said she continued to think it was a joke, even after Edward Romeo came into Robert Romeo's room, where he and Wilson were playing video games, to tell them about what he had done.

He handed her Martina's necklace and led the two downstairs. It's a prank, Wilson continued to think, until she reached the last step and saw Martina's feet in the kitchen.

Then she saw the teen's lifeless body, in a white shirt and khaki pants, sprawled on the floor.

The girl had cotton in her mouth and the leather cord Edward Romeo had shown Wilson earlier tied tightly around her neck, she said.

The rope was tied in a constrictor knot, Wilson told Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace. Edward Romeo had demonstrated it to friends before.

"At that point did you realize you were not having a joke played on you?" Wallace asked.

"Yes," Wilson replied, through tears.

Wilson continued to share her account of the night's events. When the three arrived in the kitchen, Robert and Edward Romeo rolled out a large, black body bag and zippered Martina's body inside.

They asked Wilson to help them carry the body into the backyard, she said, but she told them she felt uncomfortable doing it because her father had died.

The two brothers began to carry out the bag, but decided Martina was too heavy and put the bag in the trunk of Edward's car. Then they drove around to the backyard to bury Martina's body, Wilson recalled.

Wilson remained shocked, sitting on the ledge of the fireplace for a while. She said she could not go back home because she did not have a key and had no way to get there. She was terrified but did not want the brothers to think that she thought anything was wrong, she said.

When the two came back inside, Robert Romeo asked her to clean up the kitchen floor. Wilson took out some Windex and got to work.

After the brothers went to bed, she laid down on the couch to sleep, but couldn't, even with two knives by her side.

Despite her fears, Wilson stayed at the Romeo house until the following night. Edward Romeo drove her back home for dinner.

Until sometime before her 14th birthday in November, she kept visiting the Romeos. She said she did not want to stop going out of fear that Edward Romeo would think she had told police. She didn't tell anyone except for her best friend, nicknamed "Casper," she said.

Until investigators questioned her after Romeo was arrested, Wilson kept quiet about Martina's death. That silence was because she was terrified of Edward Romeo, Wilson said.

Her silence, defense lawyer Bob Norgard suggested, was because Wilson was covering up for Robert, a friend.

After more than an hour on the stand, Wilson finished testifying with tears, crumpled tissues and an admission of regret.

"Knowing what you know now, would you have gone to the police then?" Wallace asked.

"Yes."

"Are you sorry that you didn't?"

"Yes, sir."

The trial continues today in Judge J. Michael Hunter's courtroom.

[Shoshana Walter can be reached at shoshana.walter@theledger.com or 863-802-7590.]

Jury Recommends Death In Pasco Girl's Murder

By DAVID SOMMER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 20, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The man who beat, slashed and strangled 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook should be put to death for his crime, a jury decided Wednesday.

The same 12 jurors who on Tuesday convicted Phillup Alan Partin of first-degree murder in the 2002 slaying made their recommendation after learning that Partin had killed before.

The panel deliberated about two hours before announcing it had voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty. Circuit Judge William R. Webb, who by law must give the jury's recommendation "great weight," scheduled sentencing for June 20.

Tara Ramsdell said she remains torn over Partin's fate.

"I'm Joshan's mother, so I say kill him," Ramsdell said after the jury made its recommendation. "I'm kind of torn. Yes, I want the death penalty. He killed my daughter, but there are other people to consider."

Specifically, Ramsdell mentioned Partin's daughter, Patrisha, who was 7 when she and her father came across Ashbrook hitchhiking along U.S. 19 on July 31, 2002.

"No matter what he did to my daughter, she Patrisha Partin still has a life and she still loves her father," Ramsdell said.

Ramsdell said she, her eight surviving children and 15 grandchildren want to know why Partin killed the teenage runaway and how he could be so loving toward his own daughter while being so cruel to someone else's.

Her eldest grandchild, who is old enough to have known Ashbrook, keeps asking, "

'Why did the bad guy kill Auntie YoYo?'

" Ramsdell said.

Words From The Past

Patrisha Partin, who spent the day of July 31, 2002, fishing and playing video games with Ashbrook, testified briefly Wednesday via a videotape made several years ago.

Patrisha Partin told defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand that a drawing of a hand that her father sent her was a sign of his love.

"Your dad wanted me to show this to you," Brunvand told the girl on the snippet of tape that prosecutor Michael Halkitis agreed could be shown as mitigation against the death penalty.

Partin refused to acknowledge questions from the judge and said through Brunvand that he did not want to testify on his own behalf during Wednesday's proceeding. Partin also objected to any evidence being gathered that might persuade Webb to spare his life.

The only other testimony the defense presented during the trial's penalty phase came in the form of a videotape of Partin's former girlfriend, who said she never would have taken up with him had she known about his past.

Previous Murder Conviction

Part of that history was revealed to jurors for the first time early Wednesday when a Miami-Dade police detective testified about Partin's second-degree murder conviction for the 1987 slaying of a man Partin met at a gay bar on Biscayne Boulevard.

Lt. Dan Barrago testified that during an interview after his arrest, Partin described how he worked as a hustler, letting gay men pick him up and take him home so he would have a place to sleep and take a shower the next morning.

He met his victim, Gary Thorne, while playing pool at a lounge, Barrago recalled Partin telling him.

When they got to Thorne's home and Thorne began making advances, Partin said, he first choked and then strangled the victim with a telephone cord, Barrago testified.

Partin, who showed no emotion when the jury's recommendation was announced, has expressed both fear of and the desire for the death penalty during his years awaiting trial.

At his first hearing after detectives tracked him down in North Carolina in 2003, Partin dropped his shirt to reveal a tattoo across his back bearing the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live free or die."

Ramsdell said she doubts Partin will be comfortable in prison should Webb decide to spare his life.

"I don't think the general population of inmates will approve of what he did to my daughter," she said.

Also Wednesday, Ramsdell provided The Tampa Tribune with a CD of a song that Ashbrook wrote with older stepsister Katrina Ramsdell.

Ashbrook was about 12 when she recorded the song, titled "Wanna," her mother said.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

Bond hearing set in slaying of Lauderdale lawyer

Mar 20, 2008 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

The man accused of strangling a Fort Lauderdale attorney and dumping her body into a canal will appear before a Broward judge Thursday for a bond hearing.

Tony Villegas, 44, is charged with premeditated first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Britt Lewis of Plantation, sources close to the investigation told The Miami Herald.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Villegas, of Miami Lakes, was arrested early Saturday at his sister's house in North Miami-Dade and booked into a county jail.

He was transported to the Broward County Main Jail on Wednesday morning.

Police said they are confident Villegas killed Lewis, a partner with the Las Olas Boulevard firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.

His estranged wife, Debra Villegas, was Lewis' best friend.

STRANGLED IN GARAGE

Authorities said Lewis, 39, was strangled inside her garage, where police found traces of Mace and a button from her suit jacket.

She was last seen the night of March 5 at a nearby Publix, where she had gone shopping after work. Her Cadillac sport utility vehicle was found abandoned in a parking lot near her home.

Lewis' body was discovered March 7 in a canal near State Road 84 and Pine Island Road. Police have released little information about Lewis' slaying and a possible motive. Arrest warrants and other court documents have been sealed.

EVIDENCE GATHERING

Detective Phil Toman, a Plantation police spokesman, said evidence is still being collected, but he doesn't expect any other arrests will be made.

"We pretty much have ruled everybody else out," he said Wednesday.

Soon, the prosecution will present evidence and witness testimony before a Broward County grand jury, a closed proceeding where the defense is not permitted to state its case.

If grand jurors find probable cause Villegas committed the crime, they will return an indictment.

Defense attorneys representing Villegas say he is innocent and is being framed.

Inmate tries to hang himself in Riviera Beach cell

By ROCHELLE E.B. GILKEN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, February 28, 2008

RIVIERA BEACH — A 20-year-old man tried to hang himself in a holding cell Wednesday after he was charged with aggravated battery on his pregnant girlfriend, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and child neglect.

A police officer left Kareem Conway in the cell for less than a minute and returned to find Conway's shirt wrapped around his neck and the cage. Three officers pulled him down as he screamed that the victims and witnesses are liars, according to the police report.

At Conway's first appearance in court Thursday morning, the defense attorney said Conway was evaluated by a mental health professional and cleared to be in the general population.

The judge set Conway's bail at $2,500, but he has not posted it.

The victim told police she has been dating Conway on and off for four years and is three months pregnant with his baby. She said he knocked one of her teeth out about two weeks ago and pointed a gun at her and her friends Wednesday because he wanted the car.

Another Florida Inmate Claims To Have Been Dumped From Wheelchair

Matt McKinney, Multimedia Executive Producer
2/28/2008
WFMY News 2, NC

More trouble for a Florida Sheriffs Department. Another disabled
inmate has come forward claiming abuse at the hands of detention
deputies.

Tampa, FL – There is more turmoil and trouble for the Hillsborough
County Sheriff's Office. Another disabled inmate has come forward
claiming abuse at the hands of detention deputies.

This latest wheel chair dumping incident actually took place in
October of 2006, when deputies at the Orient Road Jail went into
Benjamin Rayburn's cell, dumped him onto the floor and left him lying
there. Video shows the deputies doing nothing as he tried to get back
up and falling over.

Attorney John Trevena is representing Rayburn. He also represents
Brian Sterner, who we first told you about two weeks ago.

While Trevena admits Rayburn is no angel, he says the man didn't
deserve the treatment he got at the jail.

Trevena says this latest wheel chair dumping incident shows the first
one was not an aberration, and he adds some people at the Sheriff's
Office are in denial about the way the jail operates.

"The officers take it into their own hands and mete out justice as
they see fit," Trevena says. "They should not be handled that way."

Col. David Parish, who runs the jail, says the incident report
justifies the force by the deputies.The incident report says Rayburn,
who wanted to go to the infirmary, became extremely agitated upon
learning he would have to stay in his cell. Rayburn began to scream
profanities, and made a swiping motion with an unknown object, and
then threw it at a deputy.

"It doesn't matter if you're Hannibal Lector," Tervena says. "No one
should be beaten if they are in jail. No one should be where someone
is running off at the mouth, thrown out of a wheel chair. No one
should be subject to any form of abuse."

Source: Mike Deeson, Tampa Bay's 10 News

Sheriff Gee calls for independent jail investigation

By: Mike Deeson

Tampa, Florida — New developments regarding abuse allegations at the hands of Hillsborough Detention Deputies.

Late this morning, Sheriff David Gee announced the creation of an Independent Review Commission to examine the policies, practices and procedures in the Orient Road and Falkenburg Road jails.

The announcement comes as a result of Tampa Bay's 10 broadcasting several videos showing questionable actions by Hillsborough Detention Deputies.

"That's humiliating to treat him this way."

That's how paraplegic Benjamin Rayburn's mother, Vivian, describes this latest wheel chair dumping at the Orient Road Jail. In this incident from October of 2006, four deputies dumped Rayburn onto the floor. They let him lie there, took away his wheel chair and then did nothing as he tried to get up and fell back to the floor.

Vivian Rayburn says it's heartbreaking. She says she is outraged.

Hillsborough Chief Deputy Joe Docobo says in this particular case the circumstances that resulted in this gentleman being taken to the ground were absolutely warranted by the deputies.

Docobo, who was contrite after we discovered the first wheel chair dumping incident with Brian Sterner, said at the time it was an aberration and not the way they did business.

We asked if the sheriff's office should have shared that another person was taken to ground, but Docobo says they weren't aware.

Critics say top brass should have been aware this time because, unlike the Sterner case, there was an incident report filed about this wheel chair dumping. It says Rayburn, who wanted to go to the infirmary, became extremely agitated as he was told he would have to stay in his cell. The report says he screamed profanities, made a swiping motion with an unknown object and then threw it at the deputy.

Docobo says this is a case where the deputies deliberately took him to the ground for just cause; he presented an immediate danger to the deputy.

But Attorney John Trevena, who is handling both cases, says it is incredibly hard to believe that those who run the sheriff's office weren't aware of another wheel chair dumping and he says it is indefensible.

Trevena says the testimony of the deputies contradicts what's seen on the video.

And Rayburn's mother says she will not let the sheriff's office off the hook. She says she will be asking for justice.

But unless some other agency investigates the incident, the sheriff's office contends Rayburn got justice when he was dumped out his wheel chair onto the floor.

Jail Review Commission Swamped With Data On Hillsborough Operations

By MIKE WELLS of The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 21, 2008

Updated: 07:03 pm

At the today's meeting of the county's independent commission on jails, division leaders from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deluged members with information about the agency's operations.

Col. David Parrish, the jail division's chief administrator, said the staff gave the commission only what it asked for. He sees the strong interest as a good thing.

"Some of them have spent time in booking late at night to see what it's really like," he said.

After the meeting, which was held at Jefferson High School's auditorium, Commissioner Ray Velboom, a retired agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said it was a lot to absorb but helpful.

"My head's still swimming," he said. "We're still trying to lay the background. It's a huge operation and we're trying to understand it."

The sheriff's staff touted the agency's tougher hiring standards, a new Web-based complaint and misconduct tracking system launched in February and how the jail changed its approach to solving inmate grievances in 2006.

None of those changes, however, would have prevented a detention deputy from dumping a paralyzed Brian Sterner from a wheelchair on Jan. 29, the incident that prompted Sheriff David Gee to create the commission in February.

Sterner, who is paralyzed from the chest down, had been arrested on a traffic-related charge.
The former deputy who was later charged with felony adult abuse, Charlette Marshall-Jones
served more than 22 years in uniform.

Gee has said previously that Marshall-Jones's action wasn't about training but human decency.
Maj. Jim Previtera, who oversees the training division, told the commission he was shocked by the surveillance video of Sterner being dumped to the floor.

"Mandatory remedial training is applicable to problem employees, but for egregious uses of force, retraining is not a replacement for discipline," he said.

When he was hired by Gee in 2005, the sheriff told him "training is the future of this agency," Previtera said.

"We've made training progress, but as you can see, we have a long way to go," Previtera said.
Tony Piskorski of Land O'Lakes told the commission the jail shouldn't be judged on one bad incident.

He had a positive experience with the jail staff when his son was arrested last year on drug charges.

"I felt very safe that [my son] would be alright because of the treatment he was receiving," Piskorski said. "Our fears were put to rest because of Col. Parrish. The county couldn't ask for a better person to run that jail."

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

Another Paralyzed Man Claims Deputies Tossed Him From Wheelchair

The Associated Press

TAMPA An inmate claims deputies tipped him out of his wheelchair and left him on the Hillsborough County Jail floor for more than an hour, his attorney said Wednesday.

Attorney John Trevena said the incident with his client Benjamin Rayburn, 32, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, was captured on videotape.

“There is widespread abuse of inmates,” Trevena said. “It’s not limited to Hillsborough County Jail. It’s just that the Hillsborough County Jail maintains very detailed video archives inside the jail.”

Rayburn is paralyzed from the chest down, Trevena said.

The allegations come just weeks after another deputy there resigned and was charged with one count of felony abuse of a disabled person after a video showed her dumping a paralyzed man on the floor. Trevena also represents that inmate, Brian Sterner.

The Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to telephone messages left by The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The incident happened Oct. 3, 2006, after Rayburn had a glass crack pipe inside the jail, and swung the pipe at Deputy Brett Strohsack, trying to stab him, according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.

Rayburn then threw the pipe, which shattered, striking Deputy Derek Shaw in the back of the head. Deputies then “relocated Rayburn from his wheelchair to the holding cell floor,” according to the report.

After the incident, investigators charged Rayburn with aggravated assault, battery on a law enforcement officer and introducing contraband into a county detention center, the report said.

Rayburn has been arrested 17 times in Florida since 1993, state records show.
Trevena said he doesn’t have immediate plans to take legal action against authorities, but added that his client wanted to facilitate reform.

Controversial Jail Video Spurs Meeting, Independent Review

Brian Sterner

By JOSH POLTILOVE of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 28, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - TAMPA - With accusations of inmate abuse surfacing on a regular basis, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee has announced the creation of an independent review commission to study policies, practices and procedures in Orient Road Jail and Falkenburg Road Jail.

"Sheriff Gee is keenly aware of the public reaction and questions about what occurred in the jail, and understands that public confidence in the county jail system is an essential element in protecting the citizens," a sheriff's office news release states. "Internal investigations into the allegations are currently under way; however Sheriff Gee believes an independent commission needs to further examine the inmate booking and incarceration procedures, and afford the public a legitimate, unbiased report on the jails."

The announcement came at the same time Brian Sterner, the quadriplegic who was dumped from his wheelchair last month by a Hillsborough County detention deputy, was meeting with the state attorney general's office via videoconference.

The office requested the conversation last week because it is conducting a broader investigation into Hillsborough County deputies and abuse, said Sterner's attorney, John Trevena.

Sterner's treatment on Jan. 29 by detention Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones resulted in her arrest on a felony charge of adult abuse and her resignation after 22 years with the agency.

The video of the then-inmate's treatment made its way around the globe, prompting outcries from the public and an apology from Gee.

After today's meeting, Trevena said he was concerned the state attorney's office isn't taking incidents of jail abuse seriously. Instead of solely asking questions about abuse, officials seemed concerned about the media presence outside the office today, he said.

"I can only assume that somebody is trying to put a lid on this," he said. "Is their real agenda simply to bury this? … I'm losing confidence in the state's ability to handle this matter."

During the meeting, Trevena suggested a special prosecutor be appointed rather than someone involved with the state attorney's office. No response was given on whether the request would be met, he said.

Trevena also said he suggested Marshall-Jones be offered plea negotiations in exchange for her testimony against other deputies who may have been involved in inmate abuse.

He said perhaps the investigation should take place on the federal level instead.

The attorney general's office would not discuss its conversation with Sterner, saying the meeting was part of an ongoing investigation.

"I can tell you that we are glad Mr. Sterner was able to express his concerns to our office, and we are taking this investigation very seriously," attorney general's office spokeswoman Sandi Copes wrote in an e-mail today to The Tampa Tribune. "We will continue to seek additional information and welcome any other information which may pertain to this."

The sheriff's office was unaware of the meeting today and declined to comment, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Trevena says the massive media attention to the case prompted a flood of calls to his office by people who claimed mistreatment by the sheriff's office, he said.

However, filing their civil rights complaints would be nearly impossible without evidence, he said.

"We've been inundated with inquiries," he said. "But absent specific evidence, such as this video in this case, it is not possible to litigate their cases."

Since the video's release, other former and current inmates have told the media they, too, were abused by detention deputies. However, the sheriff's office has not acknowledged wrongdoing in these cases:

A woman claimed Marshall-Jones abused her at the jail last month.

Another woman complained that a male detention deputy broke her left arm in May.

A woman filed a federal lawsuit claiming a detention deputy pulled her by the hair, slammed her to the ground and punched her.

Another man in a wheelchair claimed deputies abused him in October 2006.

"It is incumbent on me as Sheriff, as well as the command staff of this agency, to deal with these issues in a way that is both immediate and objective," Gee said in the news release issued today.

James Sewell will lead the independent review commission. He is the former assistant commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a former regional director of the FDLE's Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center.

"Dr. Sewell brings integrity, experience and the ability to lead a diverse group to this role," the news release states.

Sewell said Gee called him last week to ask him to lead the commission. Sewell chose the other members, selecting people he felt would make the group diverse and knowledgeable.

"I think he wants to ensure to the community that the operations are running right," Sewell said. "This gives the best of both worlds. We're looking at the bigger picture. We'll be looking at the whole operational aspects. … The first couple meetings will be orientation. If we look at the jail, we've got to understand the jail."

The first meeting will take place on or about March 10.

The commission meetings will be held publicly, according to the release. Among the issues the commission will address are:

Patterns, customs and practices of conduct and discipline in the jails.

Policies and procedures that are in place or should be.

Management and supervisory oversight.

Training and employee development.

Gee asked for a preliminary report within 60 days and a final report within 180 days, Sewell said.

Other commission members include: Lorie Fridell, associate professor at the University of South Florida and a member of the American Civil Liberties Union; Ned Hafner, director of corrections and jail services at the Florida Sheriffs Association and former director of corrections for the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office; Al Higginbotham, Hillsborough County commissioner, District 4; retired FBI Agent Brian Kensel; the Rev. Beverly Lane, of First Mount Carmel AME Church; Clarence McKee, chief executive officer of McKee Communications; Linda McKinnon, chief executive officer of Central Florida Behavioral Health Network; Delia Aguirre Palermo, professor at St. Petersburg College; and retired Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Raymond Velboom.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

Budget crunch can't stifle influx of prison inmates

By Steve Patterson,
The Times-Union

In the middle of Florida's multibillion-dollar state budget crunch, a glut of inmates is filling the prison system to its limits.

The Florida Department of Corrections is looking for $649 million to add buildings during the next budget year, starting in July.

But a Senate committee chairman says the state has to cut costs and gave the department until Thursday to trim 10 percent of the $3.2 billion budget Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed.

"If they don't show me where [to make cuts], I'm going to have to make my own," said Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa. The chairman of the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee said that could mean scaling back construction despite a surge in prison admissions.

The senator, who is not related to the governor, said he wants to know whether extra bunks can be hung in cells that already house non-violent and geriatric inmates. He said the state also needs ways to cut the number of people entering prison.

With about 96,000 people behind bars, Florida's prisons were at 97.3 percent of capacity, a department spokeswoman, Jo Ellyn Rackleff, said this week. She said the department has plans to buy metal buildings that can be readied for inmates quickly and surplus military tents to house inmates.

The agency also expects to get some camps the Department of Juvenile Justice has shut down, Rackleff said.

There could be 99,000 inmates by the end of June, according to the Florida Criminal Justice Estimating Conference, a state panel that tracks prison trends.

Forecasts used by that panel envision more than 105,000 inmates by the middle of 2009 and 128,000 five years from now.

A non-profit group that studied prison systems across the country singled out Florida's as "a case study in growth" in a report finished last month.

The Pew Center on the States said only Oregon spent a larger share of its general revenue on incarceration and that other states cut their crime rates as much as Florida while keeping fewer people locked up.

One reason for Florida's inmate buildup is more felons are being sentenced to prison instead of county jail, according to Florida's estimating conference, which gathers information affecting state planning and budgets.

Laws requiring prison time for some kinds of criminals, such as the Anti-Murder Bill the governor championed last year to lock up probation violators with violent histories, also contributed.

Deciding exactly how many people to lock up is "a difficult balance," said Dominic Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch, a group that tracks state fiscal habits.

"Our crime rate fell dramatically, and there's a certain amount of reckoning to be done for that," Calabro said. "But there are also a lot of folks in our prisons over moderate drug charges."

The Governor's Office has described the corrections budget as incorporating only "necessary prison construction," but the search for savings may lead to questions about where some inmates are housed.

Sen. Crist said he wants information about whether inmates with drug addictions could be housed someplace cheaper than traditional prisons. The governor has recommended a $29 million project to increase substance abuse treatment among inmates and people on probation.

The senator said the state also should look at whether more mental health services would cut the number of mentally ill inmates who are convicted and locked up repeatedly.

"If I can reduce the number of beds I've got to build tomorrow, I save money today," Crist said.

steve.patterson@jacksonvile.com,

(904) 359-4263

30-year sentence in teen's killing

March 19, 2008

ORLANDO

A female gang member who pleaded no contest to the 2007 choking death of another teen in southeast Orange County, was sentenced last month to 30 years in prison.

Maya Derkovic, 19, of Deltona was sentenced by Orange Circuit Judge Tim Shea on Feb. 26. In a plea deal, she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against two fellow gang members charged in the case.

Jackie "Angel" Curtis' decomposed body was found near a South Goldenrod Road pond Jan. 18, 2007, where sheriff's detectives say Jackie, 15, was lured nine days earlier. Derkovic was jailed Jan. 28, 2007, with her boyfriend on unrelated carjacking charges and told authorities about Jackie's killing. She received 26 months in the carjacking.


Jim Leusner, Claudia Zequeira, Daphne Sashin, Jay Hamburg and Rachael Jackson of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Ex-lawman's new calling: helping prisoners repent

The Rev J. Allison Defoor gives his blessing to Ralph Matthews. Defoor, 53, who spent a lifetime as a judge and lawman in Monroe County, is now an Episcopal priest and spends his days inside a barbed-wire prison hoping to save lost souls.

BY AUDRA D.S. BURCH

J. Allison DeFoor II had been meditative all morning -- prayerful on his way to the Wakulla Correctional Institution, where he worships most Sundays; as he delivered communion; as he placed his right hand atop snowy-haired Ralph Matthews, a sex offender who would be freed in four days.

DeFoor uttered the blessing and challenge to Matthews, hopeful that the words would have legs, would become a shield against temptation and sin and bad decisions.

Gracious God, we thank you for the work and witness of your servant Ralph who has enriched this community and brought gladness to friends; now bless and preserve him at this time of transition.

For more than 20 years, DeFoor was a soldier for justice in South Florida, putting more people than he can count behind bars before he found a higher calling -- to offer the word of God to prisoners.

''You just hope that in some way they leave different than when they arrived,'' DeFoor says the next day over tea at his law office, 17 miles away in Tallahassee.

Over the years, DeFoor has served as an assistant public defender, prosecutor, county and circuit judge, maverick sheriff, reelection running mate of Gov. Bob Martinez. For a time, he was Gov. Jeb Bush's Everglades czar.

DeFoor played gamely throughout his public career, all the while struggling to decipher where, precisely, God fit into his life.

He found his answer in the Episcopalian priesthood, as a volunteer ministering at a state prison almost 700 miles from Key West, where he had built a storied career.

''For years, the feeling would hit me, and I would stuff it right back down in my gut,'' says DeFoor, 54, who is also state coordinator for an environmental-restoration consulting firm. ``I finally stopped running.''

Now, he is among the most fervent supporters of the faith- and character-based prison movement stirring across the country. Followers of the religious and secular initiative work to reduce disciplinary infractions among inmates and recidivism among parolees.

SPREADING FAITH

At least 10 states now offer faith-based prison dorms. Already, the Florida Department of Corrections has converted three prisons into faith-based institutions -- two for men, one for women. And if the well-connected DeFoor has his way, a $75 million annex under construction at Wakulla would become the fourth.

Supporters of faith programming say inmates at the three prisons committed almost a third fewer infractions than those in nonfaith institutions. At Wakulla, where the program was launched in 2005, the recidivism rate hovers at 7 percent, compared with 33 percent at other prisons.

Skeptics argue that participants in these programs are already primed to succeed, that their rehabilitation is mostly a function of character and maturity.

''There's also a concern that if you have all the good eggs in one facility, you diminish the positive influence they could have on other inmates if they were in another prison,'' says Daniel Mears, a Florida State University professor of criminology.

A year ago this month, DeFoor was ordained where he now prays and preaches. He committed to the priesthood in front of 100 family members and friends and felons in a squat cinder-block building on the sprawling prison campus.

''Allison was open enough to allow himself to grow in his faith,'' Bishop Leo Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, who ordained DeFoor, said in an interview from Honduras. ``We have a gift in Allison, someone committed to our prison populations.''

Today, DeFoor ministers inside the medium-security complex cut off from the world by rolling barbed wire, dense patches of wood and a single winding road. Here, where 1,333 men serve time for crimes ranging from traffic offenses to murder, DeFoor is Father Allison, the soft-spoken, quick-witted guy who comes to prison in Tommy Bahama collared shirts.

At today's service, 16 men of various faiths gather in the honey-colored pews of a chapel adjacent to the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

''This is the Holy Ground. . . . We're Standing on Holy Ground,'' bellow these men who have done wrong.

Because no one has money for tithes, the inmates are given Post-it notes. Before services are over, they will write down something they want to offer to God -- sometimes admission of an addiction, sometimes a promise, often a fear.

''Father Allison spends a lot of time encouraging us, which is probably not easy,'' says Henry Clifton, 56, serving a life sentence for armed robbery.

`ALLISON'S JOURNEY'

In the back of the room, Terry DeFoor, a warm, petite librarian and a wife for 31 years, helps prepare for services. She, too, is here many Sundays for what she describes as ``Allison's journey.''

''Allison was ordained here, which says something about how special this place is,'' she says. ``He has slowed down, and he is at peace.''

Before donning the robe and collar, DeFoor was roaring through life, pushing, grinding his way through in the public sector, almost always in a bow tie, blazer and tasseled loafers or shorts and flip-flops.

A year out of law school, DeFoor was an assistant public defender on a murder case that would make headlines and stay with him for years. He defended a man who was accused of killing a prominent Key West museum keeper. The defendant had one teardrop on his face -- a prison tattoo that symbolizes killing a person.

DeFoor saw him a few years later. He had two tears.

''That case really weighed on me because another person was dead, somebody had paid the price,'' he says. ``Factually I never knew if he killed that man, but I was afraid he was guilty of something. It was the state's responsibility, but I always wondered if he had been put away if someone's life could have been saved.''

DeFoor became a Monroe County judge at 28, Monroe sheriff at 34, and a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor well before his 40th birthday. ''Ambitious'' became the word most used to describe him.

''We like to joke that Allison can't keep a job,'' says State Attorney Mark Kohl, whom DeFoor hired into his private practice in 1995.

Born in Coral Gables, raised in Tampa, DeFoor landed in Key West in 1978, five-feet-five, driven and full of ideals. He believed that he could tame the characters and unhinge the notorious drug-smuggling trade that beset the city.

As a judge in the mid-1980s, he became famous, perhaps infamous, for banishing lowlifes from the county, sometimes literally ordering them to catch one-way rides north.

''I was in a very unique place where you could do as much as you had the guts to try,'' says DeFoor, a proud seventh-generation Floridian, member of a citrus family that farmed near Tampa, now a father of three. ``The place was a bit backwater, with a transient population. We had a Conch cracker way of doing business.''

As county judge, he was publicly reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court for campaigning on behalf of candidates for judgeships and public-defender posts and promoting an electronic monitor for convicts while he owned stock in the company that made it.

''The whole thing was crushing,'' DeFoor says, his voice trailing off. ``In some ways, it was helpful in that it took a bit of the polyanna shine off me.''

But it didn't keep DeFoor from becoming sheriff in 1988, and 18 months later, he resigned to join Bob Martinez in his unsuccessful reelection bid.

''The thing about Allison is he wasn't afraid to make changes,'' says Anne Leonard, who has worked in the Monroe sheriff's office for 28 years. ``A lot of times in the government sector, things move slowly, but he just kept pushing to get things done.''

DeFoor returned home and built a law practice in the Upper Keys. He helped revitalize the Republican Party, taught and lectured at the university level (including the University of Miami), studied history and wrote books, including one about Odet Philippe, his 20th-century ancestor who introduced grapefruit to the state.

In 2002, he began to contemplate a run for Florida attorney general. But when confronted with the most daunting task of the job -- handling death-penalty appeals -- DeFoor was forced to face the dilemma that had quietly gnawed at him for years.

PULPIT AND POLITICS

DeFoor attended Episcopal church and denominational schools and was attracted by the service of both pulpit and politics.

He talks about his childhood from his Tallahassee office, where the bookshelves seem to perfectly marry the two Allisons. Among the titles: The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius;Wealth and Democracy.

Eventually, DeFoor would serve on the boards of seminaries in South Florida -- an unwitting first step in his spiritual journey. He became a student at the South Florida Center for Theological Studies, where he earned his divinity degree in 1999, even though he wasn't sure what he would do with it.

But eventually, everything began to make sense, not so much an epiphany as a gradual realization. Ministering, saving souls, is what DeFoor believes he was meant to do. And maybe he was supposed to send people to jail before he could minister to those in jail.

DeFoor wipes away tears. ''I finally gave up,'' he says.

It was DeFoor who persuaded Gov. Bush, a longtime friend, to offer religious teaching, academics and life-skills training at Wakulla. The faith is multi; the character is secular.

Horizons Communities in Prisons, a nonprofit whose mission is ''to prepare prisoners to live responsibly with others,'' runs the program at Wakulla. Subjects include family relations, improving credit history and financial literacy.

BUSINESS 101

One Monday afternoon, a dozen inmates attend a small business class, where they learn about equipment leasing vs. purchasing, niche marketing, networking and copyright laws. They learn in Classroom 123, under large banners that read: ``I AM A SUCCESS!''

''I have been to jail a few times and have never had the opportunity to learn stuff like this,'' says Ernest Gordon, serving time for burglary.

Gordon, 38, plans to open a tree-cutting business in Ocala after he is released. ''This whole program is great, because it makes you feel as if you are finally doing something right,'' he says.

DeFoor's second Sunday service, held across campus, is smaller, less formal, with 16 gray plastic chairs instead of pews.

James Takacs, 54, who says he was a Pentecostal street preacher before he began to serve 10 years for manslaughter, asks DeFoor if he can play a song. Takacs learned to play the piano 40 years ago as a Catholic altar boy. He selects Amazing Grace, beautifully delivering the Christian hymn.

Allison DeFoor stands with his eyes closed as the verses float through the room.

Aaaahmazing Graaaaaace, how sweet this sound / That sav'd a wretch like me! / I once was lost, but now am found / Was blind, but now I see.

In his sermon, DeFoor had stuck to his earlier theme of transformation. He assured the felons that he, too, had struggled.

''Perhaps, if I hadn't been so bullheaded, it wouldn't have been so slow,'' he says. ``We all must ask God to forgive us for whatever got us here and for the things that didn't.''

Fla. to have its first black female chief justice

Her fellow justices elected her to two-year term

TALLAHASSEE — Florida is marking its own milestone at a heady time when a black and a woman are contenders for the White House.

The state Supreme Court is about to have its first black female chief justice.

Justice Peggy Quince, known for her quick mind and probing questions on the bench, and an engaging personality off, was elected by her six fellow justices to the rotating, two-year post, the court announced Friday. Her term begins July 1.

“It is an honor and a privilege being a member of the Court and serving with outstanding Florida public servants,” Quince said in a statement. “I thank my colleagues for their trust in me and look forward to serving the people of this state in this new capacity.”

The chief justice leads the court in its oral arguments and discussion among justices. In addition, the chief justice oversees the state courts system, including management of the State Courts Administrator and regulation of The Florida Bar.

Justice Barbara Pariente, the only other woman serving on the Supreme Court, called Quince, "the epitome of a great colleague and outstanding jurist.

"And now she will make history by becoming the first African-American woman to lead the third branch of government.''

Quince, 60, is a native of Norfolk, Va., and daughter of a longshoreman.

She was attending segregated schools when the U.S. Supreme Court issued the groundbreaking decision Brown vs. Board of Education.

Her professional career began with an undergraduate degree in zoology from Howard University in 1970 and a law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1975. She has been a government lawyer, prosecuting death penalty cases as an assistant attorney general.

She was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal in 1993, becoming the first black woman appointed to any of the state's five lower appellate courts.

Her shared 1998 appointment to the Supreme Court, coming as the Democratic administration of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles was winding down and that of Republican Jeb Bush was ramping up, says a lot about her reputation for impartiality, said veteran Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer.

"Justice Quince has distinguished herself as an outstanding jurist and this is a testament to that," Meyer said. "I'm just pleased as punch that the state is getting its first African-American woman chief justice. The justices couldn't have made a better choice."

Meyer argued and won one of the court's most controversial cases since Quince came to the bench.

In January 2006, Quince sided with the majority in the 5-2 decision in Bush vs. Holmes that struck down Bush's private school voucher program.

But Quince is hard to categorize as a traditional liberal, attorneys said.

"When you argue to the court, you're never sure which side she is going to come down on," said South Florida appellate lawyer Bruce Rogow. "She asks questions about issues that interest her, not ones that reveal a point of view. That's wonderful."

Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski, director of the criminal appellant division, appears before Quince in death penalty cases. Quince often rules against her, but Snurkowski is satisfied Quince is weighing the merits of the individual cases and arguments.

Although Quince has a calm demeanor, attorneys better come to court prepared and ready to answer questions, Snurkowski said.

"She's a government lawyer and that makes her special to us," Snurkowski said.

"She's come up through the ranks. She knows what it's like to argue a case and prepare a brief."

Quince to be Florida's first African-American female chief justice

Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince asks a question of an attorney during oral arguments for two "false light" cases Thursday, March 6, 2008 in Tallahassee, Fla.

By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU CHIEF

At a heady time when an African American and a woman are serious contenders for the White House, Florida is marking its own milestone.

The state Supreme Court is about to have its first African-American female chief justice.

Justice Peggy Quince, known for a quick mind and probing questions on the bench, and an engaging personality off, was elected by her six fellow justices for the rotating, two-year post, the court announced Friday. Her term begins July 1.

"It is an honor and a privilege being a member of the Court and serving with outstanding Florida public servants," Quince said in a written statement. "I thank my colleagues for their trust in me and look forward to serving the people of this state in this new capacity."

Justice Barbara Pariente, the only other woman serving on the Supreme Court, called Quince, "the epitome of a great colleague and outstanding jurist."

"And now she will make history by becoming the first African-American woman to lead the third branch of government," Pariente said.

Quince, 60, is a native of Norfolk, Va., and the daughter of a longshoreman. She was attending segregated schools when the U.S. Supreme Court issued the groundbreaking decision Brown vs. Board of Education.

Her professional career began with an undergraduate degree in zoology from Howard University in 1970 and a law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1975. She has been a government lawyer, prosecuting death-penalty cases as an assistant attorney general and served a five-year stretch as Tampa bureau chief for that office.

She was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal in 1993, becoming the first African-American woman appointed to any of the state's five lower appellate courts.

Her shared 1998 appointment to the Supreme Court, coming as the Democratic administration of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles was winding down and that of Republican Jeb Bush was ramping up, says a lot about her reputation for impartiality, says veteran Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer.

"Justice Quince has distinguished herself as an outstanding jurist and this is a testament to that," Meyer said. "I'm just pleased as punch that the state is getting its first African American woman chief justice. The justices couldn't have made a better choice."

Meyer argued and won one of the court's most controversial cases since Quince came to the bench. In January 2006, Quince sided with the majority in the 5-2 decision in Bush vs. Holmes that struck down Bush's private school voucher program.

But Quince is hard to categorize as a traditional liberal, attorneys say.

"When you argue to the court, you're never sure which side she is going to come down on," said South Florida appellate lawyer Bruce Rogow. "She asks questions about issues that interest her, not ones that reveal a point of view. That's wonderful."

Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski, director of the criminal appellant division, appears frequently before Quince in death-penalty cases. Quince often rules against her, but Snurkowski is satisfied that Quince is weighing the merits of the individual cases and arguments.

Although Quince has a calm demeanor, attorneys better come to her court well-prepared and ready to answer detailed questions, Snurkowski said.

"She's a government lawyer, and that makes her special to us," Snurkowski said. "She's come up through the ranks. She knows what it's like to argue a case and prepare a brief."

Snurkowski and Quince worked together in the attorney general's office and enjoy a long friendship. Away from the court, Quince has a talent for making everyone around her feel comfortable, Snurkowski said.

"She's a lot of fun," Snurkowski said. "She can eat chocolate with the best of them."

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Lewis Sentenced

Posted: 6:31 PM Mar 17, 2008
Last Updated: 9:43 AM Mar 18, 2008
Reporter: bobeth yates
Email Address: bobeth.yates@wjhg.com

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Life in Prison

A Holmes County woman convicted last month of killing her young daughter was back in court today for sentencing.

Amanda Lewis faced life in prison for drowning her seven-year-old daughter. It was an emotional response for Amanda Lewis as Judge Allen Register announced her sentence.

"This court adjudged you to be guilty of that crime and sentences you to imprisonment for the remainder of your life."

Under Florida law the life sentence was mandatory. The judge says that left him no discretion in the matter.

"The state determined in its review of your case not to seek the death penalty so the only possible penalty is life imprisonment."

But before the judge sentenced Amanda Lewis to life in prison, there was a motion to completely dismiss the case; the defense said the star witness was not credible. That witness was Lewis' own son, now age seven himself, who claimed his mother drown Adrianna in the above ground pool in their backyard.

"What we have is a bold allegation that says I didn't see it, I wasn't there, and where I was I couldn't have seen what I said, but my momma killed my sister."

But the prosecution disagreed, State Attorney Larry Basford says no error was made during the trial that resulted in a guilty verdict of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

"The defense seems to forget that there was 27 other pieces of evidence to support AJ Hutto's statements."

Judge register sided with the prosecution, sentencing Lewis to life. Lewis will be in court again Tuesday to determine the custody of her son.

Judge prods attorneys to speed things up for Fort Pierce man's 1st-degree murder trial

By Tyler Treadway

Originally published 10:17 a.m., March 18, 2008
Updated 10:17 a.m., March 18, 2008

FORT PIERCE — Circuit Judge Larry Schack spent most of a Tuesday morning hearing prodding attorneys to speed up the first-degree murder trial of Albert Estrada, who allegedly shot his wife and buried her body in the backyard of their Port St. Lucie home in July 2006.

But Schack, who told attorneys to prepare for an August trial, ended the hearing by offering to recuse himself from the case, noting that his judicial assistant is friends with a possible witness in the trial.

“It won’t have an impact on me,” Schack told defense attorneys Rusty Akins and Robert Udell, “but I’ll take no offense if you want me to disqualify myself.”

After the hearing, Akins said he and Udell “will talk to Mr. Estrada about (Schack’s offer). It’s his call.”

Authorities allege that on July 26, 2006, Estrada argued with his wife, Julia Rolon-Estrada, 39, because he wanted to have a child with another woman. He allegedly shot her in the femoral artery of her leg, wrapped her in a blue tarp and buried her in a shallow grave behind their home on Rainier Road.

In a letter to Circuit Judge Gary Sweet, Estrada claimed his wife shot herself by accident.

The State Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty.

Schack also denied a request by Estrada, 41, to be transferred to the Martin County Jail, claiming he has been beaten several times by deputies at the St. Lucie County Jail.

The beatings “go on and on,” he told Schack.

Schack said Akins and Udell should “have a chat with jail officials” to work out the problem.

Another murder suspect gets tentative trial date

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: March 18, 2008

A tentative trial date of May 5 is being considered for murder suspect Harry James Davis.

The date was announced Tuesday at a pre-trial hearing in the case.

Davis, of Pensacola, is accused of killing Peggy Allen Williams on Aug. 4, 2007.

Williams was found dead in her home at Azalea Trailer Park just east of the Marianna city limits on U.S. Highway 90.

Davis was identified as a suspect after an abandoned van containing his identification was found near the trailer park.

The trial date is not certain. Defense attorney Walter Davis said he may need more time to prepare his case if the state decides to seek the death penalty in the event that Davis is found guilty of the charge.

A second pre-trial hearing is scheduled for April 15. Lead prosecutor Mark Sims indicated the state should know by then if the state will seek the death penalty. Smith is likely to seek a continuance if that happens.

Trial Asks: Who Killed Rachael Martina?

Edward Romeo, 30, in Circuit Judge Michael Hunter's courtroom in Bartow. Romeo is standing trial on charges of killing Rachael Martina and burying her in his back yard. The State Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty.

By Eric Pera
The Ledger

LAKELAND Before she disappeared at age 16, Rachael Martina was troubled and adrift in Florida's foster-care system, bouncing from group homes to shelters and finally to boot camp.

At least on one occasion, Rachael, under the supervision of state child welfare workers, was allowed to leave the highly structured environment of the Polk County Sheriff's boot camp program to visit her father, John Martina.

At the conclusion of one such visit at Lakeland's downtown Munn Park on March 12, 1999, Rachael bolted from the offices of the Department of Children & Families, situated at the north end of the park.

She stayed on the run for several months, dropping in and out of the lives of her relatives and friends, just long enough to ask for money. At some point she befriended brothers Edward and Robert Romeo, and it wasn't long before she was dead.

But no one knew her fate for sure until Robert Romeo, too, died, at the hands of his older brother, Edward, who was back in court Monday for his second capital murder trial related to Rachael's death. The first ended in a mistrial after Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter came down with malaria in late January.

If convicted, Romeo, 30, faces the death penalty for allegedly killing Rachael with a piece of rope at the home he shared with brothers Robert and Doug.

It wasn't until Robert Romeo was shot and killed in 2004 that witnesses came forward with details that led to first-degree murder charges against Edward Romeo, the eldest of the three Lakeland brothers.

Convicted of Robert's murder, Edward Romeo is serving 25 years in state prison, a fact that his defense lawyer, Bob Norgard, did not attempt to hide from jurors during his opening statement at Monday's trial.

But Norgard presented a different version of who killed Rachael.

"I expect the evidence will show that Edward Romeo did not kill Rachael," he said. "He was simply a witness," and under police questioning "he told them that Robert did it."

Over the course of the trial, which is expected to take at least several weeks, lawyers for both sides will present witnesses who somehow might clear up the matter of just who did kill Rachael. During earlier testimony at Edward Romeo's first trial, his brother, Doug, was questioned about what he knew.

But Doug Romeo reversed what he'd told a grand jury in 2004, that Edward had talked about killing Rachael. Instead, Doug Romeo said he didn't remember having given any of his previous testimony.

In Hunter's courtroom on Monday, Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace told jurors that besides Edward Romeo, the only living witness to events that unfolded the night of Rachael's death is Ashley Wilson, who was 13 at the time.

Wilson is expected to testify in court today about how she reportedly saw Rachael's body in the Romeo home and watched both Edward and Robert put her in a large bag. She then overheard the brothers put the body in the trunk of their car and drive it around back, where investigators eventually uncovered her partial remains.

According to Wallace, a key part of Wilson's testimony will focus on her recounting how she had been playing video games with Robert Romeo when Edward Romeo came into the room with Rachael's necklace, having mentioned minutes earlier that he was going to strangle the girl.

At first "she (Wilson) didn't attribute anything significant to it," Wallace told jurors. "She thought he was just talking."

[ Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528. ]

Wrongfully convicted dealt another blow

BY FRED GRIMM

No big-time lobbyist to fix their legislation. That was their second big mistake.
The first, of course, was embarrassing the state by getting themselves convicted for someone else's crime. That's no way to make friends in Tallahassee.

The wrongfully convicted just don't know how to work the Legislature. It's as obvious as those nasty little amendments that have been inserted into a misnomer of a bill called ``Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act.''

The legislation supposedly would award this hapless bunch $50,000 for every year spent behind bars for crimes they didn't commit. House Bill 1025 also tosses in compensation for counseling, housing, health insurance and college tuition.

That 50 grand a year, if it was real, would add up to a decent sum for the nine guys who accumulated $7,650,000 worth of hard time in Florida prisons before they were cleared by DNA tests.

AN ARBITRARY SYSTEM

It's almost as if Florida wants to do right by all those ruined lives. The legislation would finally standardize an infamously arbitrary compensation system that requires the wrongfully convicted to come begging, year after year, until some sympathetic legislators take an interest. (Freddy Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee were pardoned in 1975 after their shoddy 1963 murder conviction was unraveled by legendary Miami Herald reporter Gene Miller. Another 23 years passed before the Legislature was shamed into voting them $500,000 each for their lost years.)

But the intent of this session's amendment-riddled legislation has evolved into a kind of punishment for these impostor convicts for taking up the precious prison cells. Under the bill wending through the Legislature (key hearings are scheduled Tuesday in both the House and Senate), none of the nine men cleared by DNA testing in Florida would actually qualify for state compensation.

Larry Bostic, wrongly convicted of a Fort Lauderdale rape, did 19 years. Orlando Boquete, convicted of a rape and robbery in the Florida Keys, served 13. Alan Crotzer spent 24 years in prison for a rape and robbery he didn't commit. Cody Davis did six months before the crime lab in Palm Beach County checked the DNA on an armed robber's ski mask. Wilton Dedge did 22 years for a Brevard County rape conviction. Luis Diaz, the so-called Bird Road Rapist of Miami-Dade County who, as it turned out, wasn't, served 25 years. Chad Heins did a 13-year stretch for rape and murder. Frank Lee Smith died after 14 years on Death Row. Both Smith and another Fort Lauderdale man, Jerry Frank Townsend, who spent 22 years in prison, had been convicted of murders actually committed by serial killer Eddie Lee Mosley.

OUT OF THE MONEY

Of the nine, only Wilton Dedge has been able to wrangle compensation out of the state Legislature ($2 million in 2005). The rest, under HB 1025 (the Senate is expected to adopt similar language) would be out of the money.

A so-called ''clean hands'' amendment disqualifies any wrongfully convicted chump with a prior, unrelated felony conviction. Of course, when cops go looking for a quickie arrest, they aren't picking their patsies from the Rotary Club.

That nifty amendment's a big money saver. A legislative report on the fiscal impact of the bill calculates, with ''very few people eligible,'' the cost would be essentially zilch.

At least the legislation doesn't charge the wrongfully convicted room and board for all those years they mooched off the state penal system.

Not yet, anyway.

Drifter suspected in murders of veterinarian and her husband

A man who pleaded guilty to the murder and decapitation of a hiker is also a suspect in the deaths of Dr. Irene W. Bryant and her husband, John. They were slain late last year while hiking in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest.

Gary M. Hilton, a drifter, confessed to murdering and decapitating Meredith Emerson in Georgia while she was hiking. Then on Feb. 28, Hilton was indicted for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. Her headless body was found in December in Florida's Apalachicola National Forest, according to published reports.

Hilton, 61, admitted to killing Emerson when he encountered her hiking in the north Georgia mountains with her dog on New Year's Day 2008. Under a plea agreement with Georgia prosecutors, he was sentenced to life in prison for Emerson's death and will be eligible for parole in 30 years.

Florida prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against Hilton for Dunlap's murder.

At press time in mid-March, North Carolina investigators continued to build their case against Hilton, who could also face federal charges, since the bodies of the Bryants and Dunlap were recovered in national parks.

The Bryants, who lived in Hendersonville, N.C., went missing during a hike in October 2007. Dr. Byant's bludgeoned body was found Nov. 9 in Pisgah forest. Her husband's body was discovered about 100 miles away in early February in North Carolina's Nantahala National Forest.

Dr. Bryant, 84, was a retired large animal veterinarian who, for a time, owned a practice in Skaneateles, N.Y., before she and John retired to North Carolina. Born in Oregon, Dr. Bryant earned a DVM degree from Washington State College in 1947 and had been one of the few women practicing veterinary medicine in Montana, according to her family.

In addition to her love of travel and the outdoors, Dr. Bryant was an avid gardener; she taught classes in gardening and flower arranging, and was a flower show judge and garden club president. She also studied judo and karate. See page 990 for Dr. Bryant's obituary.

Many female criminals need therapy, not confinement in prison cells

By TONYAA WEATHERSBEE
The Times-Union

As tragic as Maria Viscaya's story is, it could become the story of more women in Northeast Florida.

Viscaya recently described the chain of pathology that led her to jail. The 50-year-old woman, who is serving time for prostitution, told the Times-Union that she began selling her body to support a crack cocaine habit. She turned to crack, she said, because she couldn't stand the pressure of supporting seven children. But maybe the pressure that really got to Viscaya was the pressure that comes from grappling with the pain of being raped and abused. And such abuse is all-too familiar. Those girls are now growing into women like Viscaya; women who now make up a quarter of the city's corrections population. That's more than three times higher than the national average of 7.2 percent. LaWanda Ravoira, who is a past president of PACE Center for Girls Inc., now heads the statewide Justice for Girls initiative. She told me she believes part of the reason that so many women are being incarcerated here has roots in the heavy-handed way that girls are tracked into the juvenile justice system. This is happening, she said, with little consideration of the sexual abuse or emotional problems that cause them to either act out violently or take up self-destructive habits. Ravoira, for example, remembers a 16-year-old girl who was arrested for battery after she hit a family member who had been sexually abusing her for 12 years. That arrest led to more arrests and a series of confinements in a girls' residential facility, she said, but it didn't lead to mental health therapy - which is what the girl needed. Nearly 80 percent of girls who wind up in state juvenile facilities suffer from untreated mental and emotional problems, Ravoira said. And many of those girls end up like Viscaya or the juvenile she once knew - in prison or jail. "I suspect that if you delve into the history of many of these [incarcerated] women, you'll find that many of them are victims [of abuse]," said Ravoira, who co-authored a study on the subject titled "A Rallying Cry for Change: Charting a New Direction in the State of Florida's Response to Girls in the Juvenile Justice System." "Until they become adult women, we don't see the wounds from childhood that is driving them to make irresponsible choices in life." Ravoira said one way to stem the tide of women being imprisoned is to pay closer attention to the girls who are being locked up. That's what her initiative aims to do through advocating programs that take into account the circumstances that put girls on the road to crime. "We have to ask: 'What is it that we can do to build her confidence early in life so that she can find affirmation without resorting to negative behavior?' " Ravoira said. Ravoira is right. Something must be done - at least before some of the theories on the rise of women in prisons become fodder for sexists. One theory says that changing gender roles, with women being reared to be aggressive and assertive like men, is being extended to violent crimes such as robbery and drug dealing. I hope that assertiveness in women doesn't become viewed as a negative trait by associating it with a propensity for them to commit crimes. And I hope that a rise in working women who commit check fraud doesn't lead some sexist to deny a woman more office responsibilities because he believes women can't handle work and independence without stealing; that those tasks are better left to men. Yet while many women handle single motherhood sublimely, for many others, it carries a lot of pressure. Many girls, for example, who began having children as teenagers often become women who continue to look for affirmation in that manner, without giving thought to the financial pressures and emotional burdens that come with rearing children alone. Like Viscaya, many succumb to criminal habits. But also like Viscaya, many are also sexually abused - and that creates a sense of powerlessness over their bodies and their destinies. It's alarming that women are filling prison and jail beds. What's more alarming, however, is that more girls may grow up to join them. Even though we know what to do to stop that from happening. tonyaa.weathersbee@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4251. I hope that assertiveness in women doesn't become viewed as a negative trait ...

Florida agencies face deep cuts across board

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS, GARY FINEOUT AND MARC CAPUTO

Florida lawmakers will start to tackle the steepest budget cuts in state history Monday, the result of a chaotic economy and grim financial forecasts.

Ideas already on the table: squeezing more kids into classrooms; flat-lining school budgets; freezing environmental funding; cutting costs at hospitals and nursing homes; charging more for driver's licenses and court fees.

And then there's the list of programs that won't see the light of day because legislators must write a 2008-09 budget that's 16 percent lower -- $4.6 billion -- than the $72 billion budget they passed last year.

The House is likely to delay the governor's climate-change initiatives and teacher merit pay and postpone a plan to renew Florida Forever, the program that purchases land for conservation. The Senate is looking at cutting back on FCAT tests and exams to certify new teachers.

And all talk of more property-tax cuts is off the table as Republican leaders turn their attention to the budget. Instead, they are steering headlines to more rabble-rousing issues that appeal to their conservative base -- such as allowing employees to bring concealed weapons to work and arguing that intelligent design should be taught as a scientific theory in the classroom along with evolution.

It's all made for a massive change of course for legislators accustomed to constant growth in the fourth most populous state. Now, for the first time in recent memory, the state faces a significantly lower budget because it will collect less tax in the coming fiscal year that begins July 1 than it did this year, despite an increase in population.

''These are more than cuts. There's going to be bleeding. This is deep,'' said Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who chairs the Senate's criminal justice budget committee. ``We have to prioritize the must-haves from the like-to-haves.''

A LONG LAUNDRY LIST

A few likely losers: hospitals, nursing-home providers and anyone scraping by to help the 2.3 million on Medicaid; public defenders, prosecutors and judges who say they're in crisis as crimes and court filings increase and staff sizes decrease; teachers, who will see lawmakers try to weaken the class-size caps amendment.

Possible winners: Road builders and rail-line companies stand to earn billions in economic-stimulus money if the Senate gets its way. Private prison operators and prison construction companies stand to gain as the state prison system -- now near capacity -- builds two lockups yearly for the next five years as the incarcerated population nears 100,000.

''When all you've ever dealt with are flush budgets, it's a whole different mind-set when you have to cut,'' said Rep. Ron Saunders, a Key West Democrat who was chairman of the House budget committee in 1991-92, the last time the state faced a budget deficit near this magnitude. ``This may be a three-year downturn, and that's the kind of thing you can't make minimum cuts to. It's going to require a major budget overhaul.''

The laundry list of cuts, however, is far from ready, and there's no agreement yet between House and Senate leaders. What both sides appear prepared to do are across-the-board cuts imposed on every agency.

Sources close to both the House and Senate say they will order committees next week to prepare cuts of between 6 and 10 percent below the already-reduced budgets of this year.

''It's going to be a percentage of reduction, and those reductions will be, for the most part, across the board,'' said Senate Republican Leader Dan Webster of Orlando.

Senate budget chief Lisa Carlton showed budget committee members a sheet detailing how drastic the cuts could be. The cuts amount to $2.59 billion and include: a $1.4 billion cut from education, $700 million from health programs, and nearly $400 million from prisons and juvenile justice.

''I wanted the appropriations chairs to see the magnitude that the drop in revenues can have,'' Carlton said.

Last week, lawmakers laid out more than 50 potential cuts to the state's Medicaid program that could save hundreds of millions of dollars. The options included freezing or cutting reimbursement rates to hospitals and HMOs that treat poor patients, eliminating the Medically Needy program and reducing the number of pregnant women who get Medicaid coverage.

The Senate is talking about saving $316 million by freezing the Medicaid rate increase taking effect in July for hospitals, nursing homes and other health providers. The House is considering a deeper freeze that would save $340 million.

Meanwhile, universities, which have already cut back on freshman admissions and face another $200 million cut, are talking about laying off professors and shutting the door to transfers from community college.

Schools, from kindergarten to high school, aren't likely to be spared, either, though House leaders say they will protect schools from the $179 million in cuts that should result from the property-tax cut voters approved in January.

State Education Commissioner Eric Smith told lawmakers last week school testing could face cuts, including eliminating the ninth-grade reading and math portions of the FCAT and reducing the number of teachers who review the test.

OTHER OPTIONS

There are alternatives to cuts, but not much support. For example, a plan to permit more taxable gambling appears dead in the House.

Democrats want lawmakers to raise more money through closing tax ''loopholes'' and by tapping state reserves for specific purposes such as low-income housing or the environment.

But Senate leaders say raiding trust funds isn't easy.

''All of those trust funds have a constituency base,'' Carlson said. ``They are not going to want those dollars put somewhere else.''

Stripper says judge shielded her from creditors

By Colleen Jenkins Times Staff Writer
Published March 12, 2008


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An appeals judge denied Tuesday that he helped shield a stripper from creditors seeking nearly $315,000.

Judge Thomas E. Stringer Sr., who sits on the 2nd District Court of Appeal and hears cases from Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, says he had "a friendship" and "a business relationship" with the woman.

But Christy Yamanaka, a New York City stripper, told a local TV station that the judge let her put thousands of dollars into his bank accounts so she could avoid repaying her credit card debt.

The judge conceded that Yamanaka once lived in a home in Hawaii that he purchased, but would not discuss her claim that they had a sexual relationship.

"I can't comment on the details of our personal relationship or our business relationship," he said during a 40-minute interview at his attorney's Tampa law office.

Yamanaka, 47, indicated in December that she plans to sue Stringer for money that she says he owes her. Neither she nor her attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday.

"Judge suggests to me to put the money into his account," she said in an interview with WFLA-Ch. 8. "Due to his position, nobody bothered him so it would be safe."

Her allegations put Stringer, 63, on the defensive, an awkward spot for a man inducted last year into Stetson University College of Law's Hall of Fame.

Stringer's attorney, Lansing Scriven, said his client had to be cautious with his answers, given the pending litigation. He would not allow the judge to answer several questions about his financial dealings with Yamanaka.

But Stringer was adamant that he had not aided Yamanaka in hiding her money.

"That is absolutely not true," Stringer said.

Married for 25 years to Tampa Housing Authority public relations director Lillian Stringer, the judge said he met Yamanaka 15 years ago at what was then Malio's restaurant on Dale Mabry Highway. They developed a friendship, he said, but lost touch after she moved away.

She called again a few years later, he said. She was married then. He remembers talking to her husband.

"She talked about many things, just as friends would do," Stringer said, but not about any financial troubles.

Yamanaka filed for bankruptcy in Las Vegas in August 2000 after accumulating $335,600 in credit card debt. She listed herself as an unemployed homemaker.

Bank of America and American Express won judgments against her totaling nearly $315,000, court records show.

Stringer said he is not certain when he became aware of Yamanaka's financial woes. He told her that he could not give her advice about her bankruptcy. Instead, he referred her to his son, Tampa attorney Daryl Stringer. The younger Stringer provided legal representation to Yamanaka, the judge said.

"I know it had to do with her financial problems," he said.

Records show that Stringer bought a home in Honolulu in 2004 for $440,000. Yamanaka alerted him to the home as a potential investment and lived there after he bought it.

She signed a lease and paid rent, Stringer said. He sold the home in December 2006 for $749,000, property records show. He would not discuss how they split the proceeds.

Public relations specialist Bill Frederick, enlisted by the judge to handle media calls spawned by the allegations, said both Stringer and Yamanaka had access to a bank account because of their partnership for the Hawaii home.

Stringer was named to the appellate bench by Gov. Jeb Bush in February 1999.

He was the first African-American student to earn a law degree from Stetson, where the Black Law Students Association in 2005 dedicated the name of its chapter in his honor.

A father of five adult children, he worked as a prosecutor and private attorney before Gov. Bob Graham appointed him in 1984 to serve as a county judge in Hillsborough. Three years later, Gov. Bob Martinez promoted him to the circuit bench.

He hears appeals from a 14-county district. He recently was the dissenting voice in a 2-1 decision that overturned the conviction of Michael Mordenti, accused of carrying out a 1989 murder-for-hire plot.

"He is a top-notch professional," said 2nd DCA Chief Judge Stevan T. Northcutt. "I have deep respect for him professionally and as a co-worker."

Two years ago, voters retained Stringer for another six-year term.

Judicial canons call for judges to be scrupulous about their finances. Helping someone avoid creditors would constitute an ethical violation, if not make a judge an accomplice to a crime, said Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at the University of Florida.

"That would be a problem for a judge if this turns out to be true," Slobogin said. "They need to bend over backward to avoid situations that appear compromising."

Yamanaka told WFLA reporter Steve Andrews that she deposited the money she earned stripping in Las Vegas and New York into ATMs in those cities, using an ATM card the judge gave her.

The judge would not discuss any bank accounts. In the past 10 years, he said, he has seen Yamanaka in person "probably twice," instead talking mostly by phone.

Since last spring, she has lived in a New York City apartment leased under Stringer's name. He said he assisted her with the lease because of her bad credit and has had to pay the $1,600 monthly rent on two or three occasions.

"I was just helping a friend," he said. But, he added, "I do not intend to renew the lease."

Times staff writers Michael Van Sickler, Justin George, Janet Zink and researchers Caryn Baird, Will Short Gorham and Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at cjenkins@sptimes.com or 813 226-3337.

Paralyzed inmate says Mazza made earlier dry run of deadly escape

By Tonya Alanez

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

March 14, 2008

A paralyzed inmate claims he witnessed a dry run of what allegedly happened when Michael Mazza fatally shot a Broward Sheriff's Office detention deputy on the way to court in a prisoner transport van.

That inmate, Bryon Reddick, 33, says Mazza's wheelchair straps busted loose and Paul Rein, the same deputy driver Mazza is accused of killing, pulled over to secure the wheelchair. Afterward, Mazza spoke of creating "the scene over again" to attempt an escape, Reddick told a Broward homicide detective on Feb. 8, according to a statement obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday.

Reddick's account spins Mazza's alleged actions on Nov. 7 from an opportunistic crime to a premeditated, calculated incident. He is accused of overpowering Rein, 76, while they traveled to court for a bank robbery trial. Authorities say Mazza, 41, killed Rein in a Pompano Beach parking lot with the deputy's gun.

Mazza, a convicted bank robber who has spent years in and out of jail, faces the death penalty if he is convicted of the slaying.

Reddick's account, which does not specify when the first incident occurred, also creates a conflict for Mazza's assistant public defenders, H. Dohn Williams and Bruce Raticoff, because their office has represented Reddick. He is serving a 16-year prison sentence for trafficking in cocaine.

Raticoff confirmed he is preparing a motion to withdraw from the case, but he and Williams declined further comment.

Prosecutors also declined to comment on the pending case.

When Reddick saw newscasts about Rein's slaying, he said he was astonished: "I'm like, damn man, this dude went through with it, you know."

According to Reddick, the broken-strap incident played out like this:

As Rein rounded a corner with the van, Mazza's wheelchair straps came loose. Mazza tilted and screamed. Rein pulled over, tried to secure Mazza's wheelchair and said he'd drive slowly the rest of the way to the courthouse.

"He was a wonderful person," Reddick said of Rein.

When Mazza spoke of re-enacting the incident, he asked Reddick if he wanted in on the escape, according to Reddick..

"Don't try nothing like that on, on the, on the van while I'm on there," Reddick said he told Mazza. "I told him I ain't want no parts of it."

Reddick said he later asked not to be transported with Mazza.

When Mazza spoke to detectives hours after his arrest, he portrayed the deputy as the aggressor, saying Rein acted impatiently while tending to Mazza's broken wheelchair in the back of the van.

According to Mazza's account, Rein hit and cursed at Mazza, who reacted in self-defense. They scuffled and fell out of the van. And the fatal shot was fired as the two men struggled over the deputy's weapon, Mazza said.

Man indicted on first-degree murder in Cape day care killing

By JACOB OGLES
jogles@news-press.com

A grand jury indicted a Cape Coral man Thursday for first-degree murder for allegedly shooting his estranged wife at Bobbie Noonan's Child Care on Jan. 25.

Robert Dunn could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing Christine Lozier-Dunn. In Florida, the charge carries a sentence of either life in prison or death. Prosecutors have not announced if they will seek the death penalty against Dunn.

"I'm glad he has been indicted," said Christine's mother, Kathy Lozier. "I'm glad he's behind bars."

Samantha Syoen, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office, said she anticipates this case will be considered for the death penalty.

"The death penalty committee typically convenes within 30 to 45 days following an indictment," she said.

State Attorney Steve Russell will have final say after hearing recommendations from the committee of prosecutors and administrators.

Cape Coral police said Dunn, who also was indicted on armed burglary and child-abuse charges, brought a gun to Bobbie Noonan's and killed Lozier-Dunn, who taught at Noonan's. Police said Lozier-Dunn was shot and killed in front of students while they were hiding with her in a bathroom.

Police arrested Dunn at the center after the shooting and booked him on a charge of first-degree murder, but the state attorney's office held off on charging him with that crime until the grand jury returned an indictment.

"Due to the scheduling of the grand jury, we had to wait to present the case to them," Russell said in a statement. "That is why a second-degree murder charge was filed at Dunn's arraignment."

Julie Deems, whose 2-year-old son Kyle was a student in Lozier-Dunn's class, said she was relieved to hear about the indictment.

"The court system needs to stick it to him as hard as they can," Deems said.

Deems organized a benefit Thursday for the Lozier family at the Pearl Lounge. The event was scheduled to last until midnight and Deems was hopeful as many as 1,000 would attend. Proceeds go to Lozier-Dunn's parents, who are raising Christine's daughter, Allyson Dunn.

Deems said she believes the court system had failed Lozier-Dunn because it failed to provide an injunction while the couple was in the process of a divorce.

Now, concerned members of the community hope appropriate measures are taken in trying Dunn.

"We hope the judicial system is successful," said Renee Dick, director for Bobbie Noonan's.

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Lawyers appointed to represent Hilton

By Nic Corbett
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Two assistant public defenders have been appointed to represent the man indicted in the December killing of Crawfordville resident Cheryl Dunlap.

Ines Suber, chief of the capital murder division, and Steve Been were appointed to represent Gary Michael Hilton, 61, who is currently in a Georgia prison.

State Attorney Willie Meggs had called for a hearing Thursday, because he said Hilton was not entitled to a public defender until he'd been arraigned and declared indigent.

However, Meggs said he called off the hearing after Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker amended the order to say that Hilton had already been declared indigent in Georgia.

Either way, Meggs said he knew a public defender would be appointed at some point. It wouldn't make much of a difference when that happened.

"It really is the principle of the thing more than anything else," he said. "I don't think the public defender ought to be out soliciting defendants."

Public Defender Nancy Daniels said there is no reason why her office sought an appointment early.

"It was a foregone conclusion that we were going to represent him," she said. "If things need to be done to represent him properly in these pretrial stages, we want to go ahead and get it settled."

In capital murder cases, two public defenders are appointed, she said.

Now the State Attorney's Office is drafting a request to allow the state of Florida to "borrow" Hilton for the trial, Meggs said. The request will be forwarded to Gov. Charlie Crist's extradition office and then sent to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Meggs said his office plans to seek the death penalty.

A Leon County grand jury indicted Hilton on Feb. 28 on one count of murder, one count of kidnapping and two counts of grand theft. Dunlap, 46, a nurse and Sunday school teacher, was found dead Dec. 15 in the Apalachicola National Forest.

Hilton pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to the death of Georgia hiker Meredith Emerson and was sentenced to life in prison. He is also a suspect in the deaths of an elderly couple from North Carolina, John and Irene Bryant.


Contact reporter Nic Corbett at (850) 599-2161 or ncorbett@tallahassee.com.

Does separation equal suffering?

Some state inmates spend years in solitary. Critics say that is cruel and unusual.

By MEG LAUGHLIN

Published December 17, 2006


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Ian Manuel had just turned 14 when he went to prison for shooting a woman in a botched robbery on a Tampa sidewalk. Mouthy and disobedient, he was sent to solitary confinement a year and a half later.

That was in 1992. He has been there ever since.

Now 29, Manuel has spent half his life in a concrete box the size of a walk-in closet. His food comes through a slot in the door. He never sees another inmate. Out of boredom he cuts himself just to watch the blood trickle.

Attorneys who advocate on behalf of prisoners call Manuel "the poster boy" for the ill effects of solitary confinement.

There are 3,500 inmates in solitary confinement in Florida prisons. More than 1,400 of them are held under the strictest conditions, like Manuel.

They are not allowed out of their cells except for three quick showers a week and five hours in an empty outdoor cage that resembles a dog run.

They are not allowed to stand at their doors and look out the narrow plexiglass window in their cells, bathe in their sinks when it's hot, or use their blankets as a wrap when it's cold.

They are not allowed to call out chess plays from cell to cell or read anything but legal and religious materials. If they violate any of these rules, their time in solitary is extended.

In Florida a larger percentage of inmates - 4 percent - live "behind the door" than in any other state. Their numbers are increasing by about 250 people a year, despite a state plan intended to decrease the numbers. Forty-seven of the inmates in solitary are younger than 18. Seventy-seven percent of the women and 33 percent of the men are diagnosed as mentally ill, raising questions of whether solitary confinement is a dumping ground for inmates whose illnesses are aggravated by isolation.

The Department of Corrections was brought to federal court in 1999 to defend itself against allegations that its use of solitary confinement amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Seven years later, attorneys for the inmates argue the state still has not addressed the issue, despite a court-approved plan to do so. A federal judge will soon decide who is right: the state or the inmates.

During a September federal court hearing on the alleged abuses in solitary, Chase Riveland, former chief administrator for prison systems in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, said: "Prisons have people who must be kept away from the general population. The problem in Florida is not that (solitary) exists, but who goes in and who goes out and why, and how they are treated when they're in."

More than 50 percent of the inmates are held there for years, Riveland said, "because of minor disciplinary infractions, not because they're a threat to others."

Ian Manuel holds the record for being there the longest without a break.

A call to apologize

On a muggy July night in 1990, Debbie Baigrie, 28, was walking with a friend in downtown Tampa. Three boys walked up as she got to her car and demanded money. Manuel, then 13, pulled a gun and fired.

A bullet tore through Baigrie's open mouth and out her cheek, shattering five teeth and part of her gum. Manuel pleaded guilty to attempted felony murder. At his sentencing, the judge cited 17 prior arrests for shoplifting, purse snatching and stealing cars. He gave Manuel a life sentence without parole.

In 1991, when Manuel arrived at the prison processing center in Central Florida, he was so small no one could find a prison uniform to fit him, Ron McAndrew, then the assistant warden, recalled. Someone cut 6 inches off the boy's pant legs so he would have something to wear.

"He was scared of everything and acting like a tough guy as a defense mechanism," said McAndrew, now a prison and jail consultant in Florida. "He didn't stand a chance in an adult prison."

Within months, Manuel was sent to Apalachee Correctional Institution in Jackson County, which McAndrew called "one of the toughest adult prisons in the state." At Apalachee, the boy mouthed off to other inmates and correctional officers and made obscene hand gestures, racking up disciplinary infractions that landed him in solitary.

On Christmas Eve 1992, he was allowed to make one phone call. He called Debbie Baigrie, the woman he had shot.

"This is Ian. I am sorry for all the suffering I've caused you," she remembers him saying.

They began to correspond regularly. Baigrie said she was impressed with how well he wrote.

She asked prison officials to let him take the General Educational Development test and take college courses.

"I got a second chance in life. I recovered and went on," Baigrie said. "I wanted Ian to have the same chance."

But the rules of solitary forbade Manuel from participating in any kind of self-improvement or educational program. Instead, he sat in his cell day in and day out, without reading materials or human interaction, racking up more infractions for "disrespect," which only extended his time in solitary.

After several years, Baigrie gave up.

"Not because of Ian," she said, "but because the system made it impossible for him to improve. What does it say when a victim tries to do more for an inmate than the very system that's supposed to rehabilitate him?"

Harsh yes, but right?

But rehabilitation is not the point of solitary confinement, which officials call "close management."

Its intent is "to provide housing that removes inmates from the general population to ensure the safety of staff and other inmates," said James Upchurch, the head of security for the state Department of Corrections.

Under the strictest conditions, he said, inmates are still allowed "numerous privileges," among them, "stamps, mail, paper and (rubber) pens, a prison uniform, bedding, legal and religious material, three 10-minute showers a week and haircuts."

In September, when he was state attorney general, Charlie Crist, with Assistant State Attorney Jason Vail, wrote a brief saying solitary conditions "can be severe, even harsh, without violating the Constitution."

Their example: Sleeping on a concrete floor and "being denied a mattress or a bed for several days does not violate the Eighth Amendment."

Even if the state's "remedial action (is) unsuccessful," they said, the court cannot continue to monitor solitary unless the evidence shows the state "acted with the very purpose of causing harm."

Over nine days in September, inmates testified via video before Federal District Court Judge Henry Adams.

Anthony Sutton, 29, an inmate at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution, told the judge that he first went into solitary in 2002 when correctional officers found a knife in his roommate's mattress.

Sutton recently filed a written grievance because correctional officers won't allow him to wear the knee brace he requires to walk. Their written response: "Limited mobility of (solitary) status makes the knee brace unnecessary."

Inmate Marcus Green, 33, who is on the lowest level of solitary, told Adams, "Their rules aren't on the rule sheet. They make up their own rules. I was denied access to the day room because my pillow fluff wasn't neat the way they wanted. I was denied day room because I put paper on my vent to try to guide some ventilation in my cell."

Attorneys for the Department of Corrections did not dispute inmates' version of events. Vail said their stories "did not add up to systemic violations," which were required to prove cruel and unusual treatment.

"These prisoners don't practice civilized behavior. They don't follow rules. They don't deserve civilized treatment. It's a different world," Vail told the St. Petersburg Times.

Two days later, Vail asked to amend his statement: "What I meant to say was that these inmates don't conform and are there because they don't follow the rules. It's that simple."

Going slowly crazy

On the fifth day of the September hearing, Ian Manuel testified.

"It's my belief," he told Judge Adams, "that the reason I haven't been able to progress off CM (close management) all these years is the way the system is set up. One DR (disciplinary report) will keep you there for six months and those six months add up to years and those years turn into decades."

In the past seven months, prison records show Manuel received three disciplinary writeups: one for not making his bed, another for hiding a day's worth of prescription medicine instead of taking it, and yet another for yelling through the food flap when a correctional officer refused to take his grievance form. Those reports extended his stay on the strictest level of solitary for nine months.

Manuel told the judge that in isolation he has become a "cutter," slicing his arms and legs with whatever sharp object he can find - a fragment of a toothpaste tube or a tiny piece of glass.

Don Gibbs, a psychiatrist for the Department of Corrections, said cutting and watching the blood flow is how hundreds of inmates "relieve the boredom and stress of isolation."

It takes from two to six months, Gibbs said, for inmates in solitary to start exhibiting signs of mental illness, if they are not already mentally ill.

"Nobody can be isolated for long periods of time with nothing to see and nothing to do and not deteriorate," he said. "If you're not mentally ill when you go in, you probably will be when you come out."

In the past year, Ian Manuel has attempted suicide five times. In late August he slit his wrists. A prison nurse closed the wounds with superglue and returned him to his solitary cell.

When the judge asked him why he attempted suicide, Manuel said, "You kind of lose hope."

In early 2007, Adams will rule on whether solitary conditions should continue to be monitored by his court.

About that time, staff at Union Correctional Institution will review Manuel's status to see if, after 14 years in solitary, he will be allowed to go to the day room four hours a week to watch TV in handcuffs and shackles.

"Every day," he says, "I pray for this."

Researcher Angie Holan contributed to this report. Meg Laughlin can be reached at laughlin@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8068.

Death Row inmate gets hearing today

By Megan V. Winslow

Thursday, March 6, 2008

STUART — As they waited for the courtroom to open Thursday, Frances Julia Slater's family watched 17 cardboard boxes pass by on a cart and through the double doors.

For almost 26 years, the family has watched those boxes of paperwork grow in number, as stack after stack of motions were filed to keep one of Slater's killers, J.B. "Pig" Parker, from lethal injection or the electric chair.

Today, the 45-year-old Death Row inmate and former Fort Pierce resident will try once again to stop his execution at a hearing to determine whether his attorney at a 2000 sentencing hearing failed to properly represent him.

This latest hearing was scheduled to begin Thursday but Circuit Judge Gary L. Sweet postponed it when Parker's attorney, Jo Ann Barone, requested an extra day so defense investigators could speak with their client.

Slater was just two days shy of 19 when four bored fruit pickers robbed the Stuart convenience store where she was working alone April 27, 1982, and abducted her. Afraid Slater would later identify them, the men drove her west of Stuart on State Road 76 where according to testimony John Earl Bush, 23, stabbed her in the stomach and Parker, 19, shot her in the back of the head.

When a man on a tractor found Slater's body about 14 hours later, her murder became a nationwide fixation partly because the media incorrectly labeled her as the heiress to boat motor magnate Ralph Evinrude and singer Frances Langford. Slater is the late couple's step-granddaughter.

Authorities arrested Parker, Bush and 25-year-old Terry Wayne "Bo Gator" Johnson and 23-year-old Alphonso Cave after linking a traffic stop of Bush's 1974 Buick the day of the murder with the crime.

The four men were eventually convicted and Parker, Cave and Bush were sentenced to death. Johnson received a life sentence because evidence indicated he was drunk at the time of the murder and did not know what was happening. Bush was executed in 1996 and Cave, like Parker, has continued to appeal.

In 1998, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Parker deserved another sentencing hearing to include testimony indicating Cave was the one who shot Slater. But in 2000, Circuit Judge Dwight Geiger determined it didn't matter if Parker pulled the trigger because of his participation in the crime.

The only benefit Parker got from the resentencing hearing was an opportunity to claim attorney David Lamos was ineffective.

In a 2006 postconviction motion, Parker makes a slew of allegations against Lamos including that he failed to suppress a May 7, 1982, statement Parker made to detectives.

Sweet is expected to hear those allegations today and Tuesday.

Jury Recommends Death Sentence

By TODD LESKANIC, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 5, 2008

DADE CITY - Lawrence Joey Smith's claims of repentance failed to convince a jury he deserves to live.

The panel of seven women and five men spent four hours deliberating Tuesday before recommending Smith die by lethal injection for the 1999 murder of 17-year-old Robert Crawford.

The vote was 7-5.

Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper has final sentencing authority, but the law requires her to give the jury's recommendation "great weight" in deciding whether Smith dies or spends the rest of his life in prison.

Tepper will hear additional legal arguments and testimony at a hearing March 13. She'll announce Smith's sentence April 22.

Given the chance to speak Tuesday after the jury recommendation, Crawford's sisters urged Tepper to return Smith to death row, to which he was first sentenced in 2001.

Katie Crawford, 27, detailed the pain her brother's death has caused her family.

"My life and my family's life have been severely devastated," she said through tears. "It will be nine years this year, and it still feels like yesterday. There are moments of my day I miss him so terribly much that I cannot breathe.

"It feels like the oxygen has been taken from my lungs. The pain I feel when I think of my brother's last moments will haunt me forever."

Lisa Crawford, 28, told Tepper she has post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, all stemming from her brother's murder. She ripped Smith for his lack of emotion and his failure to apologize or show remorse for the murder.

"The only thing he regrets is that he got caught - a true sign of a sociopath," she said.

Smith shot and killed Crawford and wounded Stephen Tuttle, then 16, on Sept. 14, 1999. Smith and his co-defendant, Faunce Pearce, drove the boys to a desolate area off State Road 54, shot them execution-style and left them for dead. The shooting stemmed from a botched drug deal.

Tuttle survived and was able to flag down help.

Tuttle, now 24, testified for the state last week and returned Tuesday to give a statement, which Assistant State Attorney Manny Garcia read for him. He, like the Crawfords, asked Tepper to sentence Smith to death, telling the judge how the ordeal shattered his life.

"Whatever the outcome may be, I know it will never bring back Robert Crawford, nor will it bring closure to Rob's family or mine," Garcia read. "I can only hope you, Joey, will be given the death penalty for taking Rob's life and almost taking mine."

Smith, 30, and Pearce, 45, both of Shady Hills, were convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 and sentenced to death. Smith returned to court for resentencing last week, four years after the Florida Supreme Court overturned his death sentence because of an error in a sentencing order. Tepper overturned Pearce's conviction, finding he received poor legal representation at trial.

This time, Smith represented himself with help from New Port Richey attorney Keith Hammond. The pair pelted the jury with more than two dozen mitigating factors in hopes of helping Smith avoid a return to death row.

Testifying Monday, Smith told jurors about his rough upbringing, his early descent into a life of drugs and alcohol, and the deaths of his father and brother. John Ditullio, who is facing charges in a separate slaying, testified on Smith's behalf last week, saying Smith had helped him become a better person while the two were inmates in Land O' Lakes Jail.

Smith's mother, Mary Smith, flew in from her home in Missouri to tell the jury that she still loves her son despite all his troubles.

Evidently the mitigators weren't enough to convince seven jurors Smith's life was worth saving, something that dismayed Mary Ellen Holloway.

Holloway, 29, said she has known Smith for six years and was a regular at his resentencing. She said she has gotten to know Smith well enough to know his change is genuine.

"I know my friend, and he has changed," she said. "He has been a positive influence on so many people, and he has the ability to continue to be positive. He will have family and friends who will continue to support him."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (352) 521-3156 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

As their crime rate climbs, more women filling jails

By ADAM AASEN,
The Times-Union

For 50-year-old Maria Vizcaya, the stress of caring for seven children was too much.

She said she turned to crack cocaine as a way to escape and then to prostitution to support her habit. After being raped and abused, she said, she felt like nothing. Now she's serving time for prostitution charges in Jacksonville. She said many women like herself turn to crime because they don't like who they are. "I'm not trying to make excuses, but we really are victims," she said. "I did things that I didn't think I had it in me to do." Vizcaya's story has become all too common, with the number of female inmates increasing nationally by twice the rate of their male counterparts from 1977 to 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jacksonville officials have seen the same increase. "It used to be that it'd be surprising to have the women's floor full [in the old jail]," said Stephanie Sloan-Butler, chief of the prisons division for the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. "Now the women's floors are full. Things have really changed." Becoming more even There was a 26 percent increase in female inmates in Jacksonville from 2000 to 2007, compared with 9 percent for male inmates. Jacksonville beats the national average, with female inmates making up a quarter of the corrections population, compared with 7.2 percent nationally. Women also are being arrested for different crimes than men. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 53 percent of male prisoners are serving time for violent crimes, as opposed to 34 percent of women. Sixty percent of female inmates were convicted of either property or drug crimes, compared to 40 percent of male prisoners. Women in Jacksonville received far more charges than men for check crimes and prostitution in 2007. Men outranked women in murder, sex crimes, assault, battery and robbery. Although they weren't able to provide data, Jacksonville corrections officials said they've noticed women being arrested for more violent crimes in the past few years. From Lena Cumberbatch, who was convicted of drowning her foster daughter in Jacksonville in 2001, to iconic bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde, experts say women are more likely to commit crimes because of family or love. "Women look for connections. They look for relationships," said Pamela Dronski, visiting professor at the University of North Florida. "Even when it comes to crime, it all comes to connecting with somebody else, whether it's rejection, love, family." This is something Dronski, who teaches a course called Women in Jail, knows about personally. When she was an infant in 1975, she said, her mother, Norma Summerall, killed her abusive husband. Even though Summerall only served three years, Dronski said her mother was emotionally affected for a lifetime. But Dronski believes women aren't as violent in nature as men and that they are pushed to commit crimes. Studies show three out of four female inmates have some history of abuse. Just compare two of Florida's most famous serial killers: Aileen Wournos, a prostitute who killed six men in 1989 and 1990, and Ted Bundy, who killed at least 19 women in the mid-1970s. Dronski said Wournos' case is much more sympathetic because she was raped and beaten, while Bundy fits the profile of a sociopath. UNF professor Christine Rasche, who teaches Women in Crime, said the rise in female inmates could be attributed to the changing gender roles. She said some women aren't taught to be "sweet and polite and nice little ladies like they used to be. They are taught be more assertive and aggressive." When it comes to drugs, the same issues affect men and women: stress and peer pressure. Ashley May, a 19-year-old inmate in Jacksonville, said she was arrested on alcohol charges because she was "partying too much," while 23-year-old inmate Leann Carlson said she became addicted to crack cocaine after trying it out of curiosity. Dealing with the influx Experts say women serve their jail or prison time much differently than men. Yet many correctional facilities across the country have been criticized for not treating women differently when it comes to rehabilitation. Jacksonville has programs at the jails specified for women, such as classes in healthy decision-making, money management and domestic abuse. The biggest difference though is about child care. Women are more likely to be the sole provider for children, so visitation and parenting classes often can be more important than they are for men.

Unfortunately, child visitation programs have been eliminated because of funding cuts, Sloan-Butler said. Now, women can meet with only one child and one adult at a time once a week. As a result, Sloan-Butler said, they only take away visitation rights for especially bad behavior. Sloan-Butler said it's also more difficult for women to find jobs when they are released. The blue-collar jobs in factories and construction that hire many male ex-convicts often don't appeal to women. In addition, many women have to deal with a battered self-esteem after spending time locked up, which can affect them when they're trying to find a job, she said. Jail officials and academics both said they would like to see more therapy for women locked up and job training to suit women's skills. Even though she's never really worked before, Vizcaya said she wants to find an office job and stay off drugs. "A lot of people want to tell me what I can't do, but I have to stay positive and know I can do it," she said. adam.aasen@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4247 Five Theories on the rise in female inmates changing gender roles in the past few decades, women have proved they can do anything men can do - including crime. Some theorize that women are being raised to be more aggressive and assertive and that's why you find more female robbers and drug dealers than you would have years ago. Crack cocaine addiction Some believe there's a direct correlation between the rise in the War on Drugs arrests in the 1980s and the increase in female inmates. Nationally, women have a greater percentage of drug arrests than men. There's a belief that women might not be committing more crimes than they used to, but that law enforcement now is tougher on women. Some speculate that women used to be let off the hook for crimes such as drunken driving and fighting, but enforcement now is equal. Too many single moms Some think a rise in single mothers can be connected to a rise in women being arrested for thefts, burglaries, prostitution and drug dealing. The added stress also might encourage some to use drugs as an escape. More women working Women now have more responsibility in offices than they did decades ago, which gives them more opportunities to commit crimes such as check fraud, one of the more common charges among female inmates. Sources: Christine Rasche and Pamela Dronski, University of North Florida By ADAM AASEN -- The Times-Union Most women aren't in jail for violent crimes, and experts say th e women who do commit violent crimes do it for far different reasons than men. Most female murderers kill family or spouses, said Pamela Dronski, visiting professor at the University of North Florida.

Here are some of the First Coast's most notorious female criminals: Lena T. CumberbatchConvicted of drowning a 15-month-old girl in a bathtub in 2001. Cumberbatch, now 43, beat and then drowned her foster daughter, Lautiana Hamilton, in her Arlington home. Her own children, ages 12, 11, 10 and 9, testified that their mother had abused them in the past. Sentenced to life. Shana Barnes Convicted of shooting her husband in 2000. Barnes, now 43, shot her husband from her car window as she was backing out of the garage of her Arlington home. She initially claimed self-defense. Plea bargain to manslaughter charges. Josie Clark & Wendy Calderon Convicted in 1999 of aircraft hijacking. Clark, then 53, of Gainesville pulled a gun on a helicopter pilot to attempt a breakout for her husband, a Death Row inmate. She was accompanied by 32-year-old Calderon of Citra. Sentenced to 12 years in prison. Veronica Perdue Convicted in 1990 drowning of her two young children. Perdue, then 22, was arrested when her sons, 2 and 4 years old, were found floating in a 40-foot borrow pit. She claimed she was fleeing from a knife-wielding man who forced her off the road. Sentenced to life. Wendy Leigh Zabel Convicted of abducting an infant and killing the baby's mother in 1987. Zabel, then 19, abducted 4-day-old Heather Witt and then stabbed and shot 30-year-old Joan Witt. Witt's mother, Marie Barrett, 56, also was stabbed and shot but survived. Sentenced to life. Andrea Hicks Jackson Convicted of fatally shooting a police officer in 1983. Jackson, then 25, shot 28-year-old Gary Bevel when he was questioning her in Brentwood Park about filing a false police report. Sentenced to death, but later changed to life in prison. Jimberly Lisa Hester & Renee Magnuson Indicted in a 1976 ritual slaying in Jacksonville Beach. The women, then 19, along with 20-year-old Billy Magnuson, were accused of stabbing Hester's 74-year-old grandmother, Vera S. Gould, to "drive out Satan." Charges dropped due to insanity, sent to a mental hospital. NOTORIOUS WOMEN of FIRST COAST Tiffany Cox Convicted of kidnapping and burying a couple alive in 2005. The details The bodies of Carol and Reggie Sumner, both 61, were found in a shallow grave just north of the Florida border. Cole, then 23, was arrested along with three men in the deaths. The verdict Cox, shown awaiting sentencing Thursday in the Duval County Courthouse, was given the death penalty.




This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/031008/met_255416077.shtml.

Another video raises questions about jail abuse

By: Mike Deeson

Tampa, Florida - It is the latest in what appears to be a violent confrontation between Hillsborough Detention deputies and an inmate.

In an instance from last May, a deputy grabbed Charlana Irving’s arm, put it behind her back and appeared to twist it. Then he and a female deputy remove the woman from her cell.

X-rays showed that Irving, who was arrested for DUI, had a broken arm.

"As [the deputy] was beating me, I was screaming, 'How can you beat me up? You can't beat me up,'" Irving says.

It is the latest complaint leveled against the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office. First there was the wheelchair dumping incident of quadriplegic Brian Sterner. Then this week we discovered another video of a deputy violently tussling with Marcella Pourmoghani.

Although the Sheriff's office maintains Pourmoghani -- who had to be taken out of the jail in a stretcher -- was to blame for her incident, the state attorney office refused to charge her, After viewing the tape, the state attorney decided there was no evidence she did anything wrong.

Pourmoghani says, "These people have guns and they have badges. They are no joke, they will do what they want to do and your life is in their hands."

Because the release of the wheelchair video has caused a flood gate of complaints against central booking which were caught on tape, the sheriff's office is on the defensive on how it handles inmates at the Orient Road Jail.

Chief Deputy Joe Docobo says, "Sometimes you have to use force. That is the sad reality of this business."

While Docobo says the deputy in the latest case used only force that was necessary, Irving asks to only look at the tape and decide. And once again, questions are being raised about Hillsborough County's Jail, its deputies and the man who runs it all, Sheriff David Gee.

Woman Signals Plan To Sue, Says Arm Was Broken At Jail

By Josh Poltilove of The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA The attorney for a woman who claims her arm was broken while in Orient Road Jail last year has provided The Tampa Tribune the notice of intent to sue sent to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Attorney Luke Lirot wrote that the claims are based on "the events that led to the wrongful arrest, unreasonable use of force, and false imprisonment, with resulting pain and suffering and other consequential damages" of his client, Charlana Irving.

Before filing a lawsuit against a government agency, an attorney must give at least six months' notice. Lirot filed the notice Sept. 19.

News of Irving's complaint follows the release of a video last week showing Detention Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones dropping a quadriplegic man from his wheelchair at the jail. On Wednesday, a woman claimed Marshall-Jones abused her at the jail last month.

On Friday, another woman filed a federal lawsuit claiming a detention deputy pulled her by the hair, slammed her to the ground and punched her in 2006.

"Over the past several days, a number of incidents have been brought to light that reveal the frequent use of excessive force by Hillsborough County detention officers in dealing with inmates," Lirot wrote in a statement today. "In every instance, this apparently far too common practice is being used where the inmates are neither uncooperative nor threatening."

The sheriff's office released a statement Wednesday acknowledging that Irving alleged mistreatment at the jail. Irving, 28, has said a male deputy broke her arm.

On May 9, Irving was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and obstructing an officer. A video shows Detention Deputy Milton Fassett removing Irving from a cell after repeated verbal attempts to calm her failed, the sheriff's office statement says.

As Fassett tried to escort Irving from the cell, she pulled away.

"He used only the force necessary to secure her arm behind her back to gain compliance before he let her out of the cell," the sheriff's office statement said.

Irving was taken to the clinic after complaining about pain in her arm. When it was determined that her left arm was broken, it was placed in a sling. The sheriff's statement says it is not possible to tell whether the broken arm occurred before or after her altercation with the deputy.

Outside her apartment Wednesday, Irving declined to comment, saying her attorney told her not to.

In Lirot's statement, he said maintaining order in detention facilities is critical but with the state's power to use force comes a responsibility to show restraint.

"Rather than try to escape responsibility by asserting defenses or explanations that defy logic, the sheriff's office must accept responsibility for its deputies and must eliminate the use of violence as an option to maintain order," he wrote. "It is critical that more adequate training of those individuals permitted to use force be required. These violations must end if the goal of excellence and professionalism that has always been the goal of Sheriff [David] Gee is to be realized."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23278555/

Two men indicted in first-degree murder cold case in Martin County

Allen Dale Matzek

STUART — Two "career criminals" arrested last month in connection with an 16-year-old murder case have been indicted on charges that carry a maximum penalty of death.

After an all-day hearing Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Omar Cortez Johnson, 35, a Georgia prison inmate, and Darryl Lamont Cheatham, 33, of Durham, NC, for first-degree felony murder, kidnapping with a firearm, and burglary of a conveyance with an assault while armed. The charges were filed in connection with the Nov. 25, 1991 carjacking and shooting death of Allen Dale Matzek, 34.

Motorists found the Jacksonville resident's body on the side of Interstate 95 near the Martin County rest stop and detectives were able to connect him to a blood-splattered rental car abandoned in Fort Pierce, but the case remained without significant leads for almost two decades.

At a news conference in February, members of the Martin County Sheriff's cold case unit announced the arrests of Johnson and Cheatham, and said they connected the two "career criminals" to Matzek's death after receiving a letter in 2006 detailing the murder from a former cellmate of one of the men.

According to investigators, Johnson borrowed $5,000 from a South Carolina drug dealer to buy drugs in Miami, but the dealers beat him up and stole the money. Johnson then had Cheatham and four other men drive to Florida City to get the money back, but they gave up after exchanging gunfire at a restaurant. Johnson's group came across Matzek asleep in a rented Cadillac at the Martin County rest stop and decided they would rob him of the car to pay back the South Carolina drug dealer.

Johnson shot Matzek in the back of the head and the men dumped the body and the rental car, according to investigators.

Assistant State Attorneys Vicki Nichols and Bernie Romero are now prosecuting Johnson and Cheatham and said they could decide to pursue the death penalty, though Cheatham was 17 at the time of the murder. After Tuesday's hearing, they said the other men suspected in the case have not been charged and are regarded as witnesses.

Two of the charges Johnson and Cheatham faced — grand theft and robbery — could not be pursued because the statute of limitations to prosecute them for those crimes passed years ago, Nichols and Romero said.

The grand jury also could not indict the men on carjacking because it was not codified as a crime back when the Matzek murder occurred, the prosecutors said.

On trial for murder, Partin mocks sheriff with job bid

Phillup Partin is on trial, accused of murdering a teenager and is also facing other charges



The defendant's 12-year-old daughter testified for the prosecution Wednesday and told of being abandoned by him at age 7.

By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Phillup Alan Partin is on trial this week for murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted of killing 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook.

But he's still found time to write letters and ask for a job - as a Pasco sheriff's deputy.

From the jail cell where he is being held without bond, Partin penned a mocking letter to Pasco Sheriff Bob White asking for a job as an armed, uniformed deputy with a patrol cruiser.

Partin also mocked one of the deputies who pursued him in 2002 for the teenager's death and will testify against him this week: Scott Gattuso.

Gattuso was the subject of a Times report in December that detailed his troubled personnel record and long history of disciplinary problems in his two decades with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"Never mind my past criminal history," Partin wrote to the sheriff, "as you have already shown that you are an Equal Opportunity Employer by hiring others with a history of employment problems ..."

Sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin's response:

"If he feels he's qualified, he's encouraged to apply," Tobin said. "He won't be treated any differently than any other applicant."

Gattuso has been investigated 30 times for accusations that he violated agency policy. Thirteen of the allegations were substantiated, including charges of discourtesy, insubordination and conduct unbecoming.

During a forgery investigation, the sheriff suspended Gattuso for more than a year - with pay. Gattuso collected almost $48,000 before pleading no contest to the charge and being demoted.

Partin accused the sheriff of being a " 'good ol' boy' just looking out for one of your own."

But Partin said he's a "good ol' boy" too.

"I am seeking employment with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office so that I too can be issued a .40 caliber Glock and a badge," Partin wrote, "while I drive around in a sheriff's patrol car ... being paid $27.00 plus ... an hour to do this!"

Unfortunately for him, the Sheriff's Office does not employ anyone with a felony record. That would include the second-degree murder conviction that Partin served 17 years for in South Florida.

Partin mailed letters to the sheriff, the judge in his trial and the St. Petersburg Times. The letter to the Times was postmarked Monday, when the jury was picked in Partin's capital murder case.

"He has to deal with that before he ever becomes a deputy sheriff," Tobin said.

* * *

The state continued its case Wednesday against Partin, calling one of its youngest witnesses to the stand: Patrisha Windham, the defendant's 12-year-old daughter.

She was 7 when she saw Partin and Ashbrook together the day before the 16-year-old was found dead on Aug. 1, 2002. Days later, with deputies on his trail, Partin abandoned his daughter at the Wachula home of an ex-foster mother, Jean Prestridge.

"He said he loved me," his daughter testified, "and that whenever he gets the chance, he was going to come back and see me again."

"Did he come back and see you again?" asked prosecutor Mike Halkitis.

"No sir," the girl said.

The state will continue its case today.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6236.

Accused day care shooter indicted for First Degree Murder

Dunn • Being held without bond

FORT MYERS: The man accused of opening fire inside a Cape Coral day care center was indicted for first degree murder Thursday by a Lee County grand jury.

Robert Dunn is accused of shooting and killing of his estranged wife, Christine Marie Dunn, at the day care center where she worked.

State Attorney Stephen Russell released the following statement Thursday:

"After reviewing this case in February, I made the decision to take it to the Grand Jury for their consideration in seeking First-Degree Murder and other charges. Due to the scheduling of the Grand Jury, we had to wait to present the case to them. That is why a Second-Degree murder charge was filed at Dunn’s arraignment. In the State of Florida, a First-Degree Murder charge can only be decided on by a Grand Jury."

The upgraded charge means Dunn now faces life in prison and possibly the death penalty.

On Friday, January 25, Robert Dunn allegedly walked into Bobbie Noonan's Day Care Center in Cape Coral and shot Christine as she huddled in a bathroom with several children.

Dunn was also charged with one count of first degree burglary while armed with a firearm and one count of child abuse.

His next court date is in May.

Charlie Crist as Vice President

Charlie Crist has been mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president by
John McCain. Crist is the governor of Florida and is a Republican, naturally. He is actually quite new at the job as he has not even been in office for one full term.


Prior to becoming governor, Crist was the attorney general for the state of Florida. He was elected governor in 2006 and has only been in office a little over a year.

Charlie Crist grew up in Pennsylvania and is the son of a Greek father and Scotch-Irish mother. He played football at Wake Forest University and was a frat boy at Florida State. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Cumberland School of Law in Alabama, according to Wikipedia.

Crist has been divorced for the past 28 years. He was only married for one year. He has no children nor has he ever re-married. He has, however, given tax benefits to heterosexual couples who adopt.

Charlie Crist stands tough on crime, which is one reason why he ended up getting elected as Governor. Activist John Walsh is a strong supporter of Crist as is anyone who is appalled by murder, especially of children. Crist has worked extensively with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

As governor, he is cutting the state budget, which is making some Florida taxpayers very happy. Others, who are depending on the state and who look for jobs that pay decent money in which you really don't have to do anything or even show up, are upset.

Crist has had little scandal throughout his political career which began when he won the state senate seat in 1992. He was a supporter of chain gangs and was nicknamed "Chain Gang Charlie" by critics who are fighting for HBO and Showtime for convicted murderers and felons, according to Wikipedia.

Charlie Crist is pro life and pro family, according to Wikipedia information. He is pro death penalty, pro NRA, wants to expand state gambling but is also "green" as he wants to ban oil drilling on Florida's coastline so that we can be beholden to the Saudis.

In short, Charlie Crist is a Republican platform. His platform is a solid Republican platform. And despite the fact that he is unmarried and has no children, nor does he have a significant other, he is pro the "Defense of Marriage Act."

Charlie Crist has been a staunch supporter of civil rights and has been called the state's "First Black Governor" by Democrat Terry Fields in that he has been a "friend to the African American community even before he became governor," according to a report on Wikipedia. He campaigned with McCain frequently during the Florida primaries and endorsed the republican candidate.

Florida has 27 electoral votes. Winning the presidential election in Florida is considered to be crucial in the presidential race. We all remember how important it was in the 2000 election, right?

On a personal note, my parents met Charlie Crist who spoke on behalf of a national landmark that developers were trying to destroy. Crist is in favor of keeping the Belleaire Biltmore Hotel and his support actually allowed the 120 year old hotel to be spared from a developer's wrecking ball. My parents asked if they could take a photo with him and he was glad to oblige.

According to my mother, he was a true gentleman in every sense of the word and spent plenty of time with the residents of their community. They were exceedingly grateful that he interceded on behalf of the landmark hotel and, by the way, this was way before the primaries began.

Crist is a good choice in Vice President for McCain. He has republican ideals but is not preachy and has a nice smile as well as charisma. He would be a good choice for McCain who wants to bring in the Florida vote.

Sources: Wikipedia
Mike & Joanne Friel

Last Killer Sentenced To Death As Daughter Of Victim Forgives

Marika Kelderman, Live 5 News

Yesterday Tiffany Cole was sentences to death for her role in the murder of James and Carol Sumner in Jacksonville Florida. She was the last of the four convicted killer to be sentenced.

James and Carol Sumner most of their lives in Charleston. They were murdered just 7 months after they moved from Ladson to Jacksonville, Florida.

Carol Sumner's daughter lives in North Charleston. Rhonda Alford says in the almost three years since her mother and stepfather were kidnapped and buried she has forgiven they're killers.

"About 7 month after the crime, god just was very gracious with me and completely took care of me. Forgiveness has flowed for all for of them," Alford said.

20 year old Bruce Nixon received 45 years in prison for his role in the slaying. 25 year old Michael Jackson, 25 year old Tiffany Cole and 20 year old Alan Wade were all sentenced to death. The fate of Alan Wade is now what rests heaviest on Alford's heart.

"Alan Wade, he got the death penalty on Tuesday and that just grieves my heart terribly. He was too young, way to young," Alford said.

Alford believes Michael Jackson was the mastermind of the murders and his sentence is the right one but she holds no hatred toward any of the four.

"I know my mother and I know my stepfather and I know that they were probably asking for forgiveness for these kids as well. I actually have no doubt about that," Alford said.

Alford has befriended the families of Cole, Wade and Nixon and says forgiveness has allowed her to better remember her mother and stepfather.

"I don’’t think about the way they died at all. It doesn’t even enter my mind. I just know how they lived and the kind of people they were."

"All four families have lost their children, their brother, their sister. It will never be closed. I've grieved my parents and the Lord has taken care of me. Absolutely taken care of me, now i just grieve for their families."

Vet using war stress defense found not guilty of murder

By LAUREN SONIS
Staff Writer

BUNNELL -- An Iraq war veteran was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday after psychiatrists said he was having a flashback when he shot and killed a man.

Brian Christopher Wothers, 26, of Ormond Beach will live in a mental-health treatment facility until he is no longer deemed a threat to himself or others.
He was accused of killing 26-year-old Jeffrey Maxwell, a traveling construction worker from Denison, Texas, who was in Florida on an assignment. Maxwell's body was found May 26, 2006, in a wooded area near Old Kings Road in Palm Coast.

Wothers had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder related to his military duties when he saw piles of bodies and witnessed shootings, his attorneys said.

Prosecutors and Wothers' attorneys agreed to a trial by Circuit Judge Kim C. Hammond -- on charges of robbery and first-degree murder -- instead of by a jury.

"He's likely to suffer from that disorder for the foreseeable future," Hammond said.

Three adults hugged and kissed Wothers after the trial. They declined comment for this story.

"I'll call you," Wothers whispered to a woman as he left the courtroom to return to the Flagler County Inmate Facility, where he has been held pending the outcome of his case.

Wothers will stay there until the paperwork is filed to transport him. His attorneys said while it's not definite, Wothers will likely be moved to the North Florida Evaluation Treatment Center in Gainesville.

Attorney Zachary Stoumbos said in most similar cases, it can take five years before someone is considered safe enough to release.

Jeffrey Maxwell's family did not attend the trial, but they remained close to their phones on a snowy week in northeastern Texas.

His mother, Evelyn Maxwell, said she had hoped Wothers would be forced to stay in a treatment facility for at least 10 years and thought he should be punished.

"I'd prefer if he was in there a lot longer than five years," she said.

She said that while she supports capital punishment in general, she did not want to pursue the death penalty because of Wothers' mental-health problems. The mother said she wanted him to get help.

She later added, "A lot of (veterans) do need help when they come out."

When soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan and are accused of killings and other crimes, the justice system has been increasingly impelled to consider the effects of combat trauma in their offenses, according to a January New York Times report.

Some judges and prosecutors have resisted the idea of creating a class of privileged offenders.

But increasingly veteran defendants are at least raising the issue of psychological war injuries. Some defense lawyers insist Iraq or Afghanistan be factored into cases, the Times reported.

Wothers and Maxwell met while they partied at Lollipops Gentleman's Club in Daytona Beach, and in the wee hours of the morning, Maxwell got a ride.

Maxwell had to catch a plane later that morning and wanted to be dropped off at his Palm Coast hotel room, where his buddy was waiting for him.

But before they got there, Wothers and Maxwell headed to the beach to shoot an M4 assault rifle, for fun, over the ocean.

Police believe Maxwell was killed between 3:30 and 4 a.m.

Maxwell borrowed Wothers' cell phone to call his hotel roommate at 3:25 a.m.

Assistant State Attorney Steve Nelson said there was no sign of a struggle on Maxwell's body, and the doctors may have used that fact as evidence of the flashback.

Investigators found Maxwell's wallet several feet from his body, Wothers' attorneys said. Maxwell worked on water towers and tanks and left behind a 4-year-old son, Tyler David Maxwell, mother Evelyn Maxwell said.

Wothers had aspirations to become a pro baseball player, his attorney said, but instead, he joined the military.

He was stationed in Kosovo from 2001 to 2003 and moved to Iraq to work in a motor unit for the Army in 2004.

During his time in Iraq, he suffered from headaches, dizziness, light-headedness, nightmares and other traits that are linked to post-traumatic stress disorder, said the assistant state attorney.

He sought help, said Wothers' attorney, and would wake up five nights a week from nightmares. He attempted to give away his belongings, saying he didn't think he would make it out alive, attorney Stoumbos said.

The military discharged Wothers, referencing the post-traumatic stress disorder.

Judge Hammond ruled that Wothers' medical files for this case will be open to the public, including veterans who may gain understanding by reading it, because the records are "a matter of great importance for people to understand."

lauren.sonis@news-jrnl.com

Grand jury indicts three Pasco men in different murders

Jackie Lee Braden, 36, (left) was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder.

Bryan Gregory Heater, 27, (right) was indicted on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

The state could seek the death penalty for all three men charged in different murders.

By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
Published March 8, 2008


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Justice was a long time coming for Teresa Lodge.

Her bloody body was found Sept. 28, 2006, in her Land O'Lakes apartment. The 46-year-old had been stabbed and strangled. Detectives searched for her killer but had little to go on.

Nothing happened in the case until more than a year later, when an overwhelmed state agency finally managed to test evidence found underneath her fingernails. The computer spat out a DNA match:

Derral Wayne Hodgkins.

Days later, in November 2007, the 48-year-old Shady Hills man was arrested in Lodge's murder.

"If we hadn't had this DNA hit," said Pinellas-Pasco Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett, "this guy would still be out there."

Now Hodgkins and two other Pasco County men accused of different murders face more than just the threat of prison: The state could choose to seek the death penalty for all three.

A grand jury Friday indicted Hodgkins and two other men for first-degree murder: Jackie Lee Braden, who is accused of killing his mother and stepfather last month; and Bryan Gregory Heater, accused of a shooting in a strip club parking lot that killed one woman and injured someone else.

The grand jury, consisting of 13 women and five men, heard testimony and deliberated for six hours in the New Port Richey courthouse.

In the Lodge murder, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's forensic laboratory matched the victim's fingernail scrapings to a sample of Hodgkins' DNA in the convicted offender database. He had served 17 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old Tampa girl in 1987.

Until those test results came back, his name had never come up in Lodge's death investigation.

"He wasn't even on the radar screen," Bartlett said.

Detectives first interviewed Hodgkins on Nov. 7, according to court records. He said he had known Lodge since 1985 and that the two dated.

But he hadn't seen her for about two months before her death, Hodgkins told detectives, when they hugged and kissed at a gas station.

It was the first of many stories, authorities say.

"As they changed the questioning," Bartlett said, "he just changed his story."

According to court records, Hodgkins said he had never been in her apartment. When confronted with the DNA match, he said Lodge scratched him two months before her death. Then Hodgkins said he had been in her apartment a month before her death - then he said it was three days before she died.

But the forensic evidence doesn't match any of his accounts, according to court records.

Robbery was a possible motive, Bartlett said.

"It was a very brutal manner in which she was killed," he said. "She definitely fought her assailant, no question about it."

Bartlett said prosecutors understand FDLE's delay in processing the evidence: "They're overworked, understaffed and underpaid."

There was no delay in arresting the two other men indicted on Friday.

Jackie Lee Braden, 36, was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, accused of killing his mother, Sherrill, and stepfather, David Wright, last month.

Both 54-year-olds were found shot dead in their Shady Hills home, authorities say, and there was evidence they had been robbed.

Hours after neighbors said they heard gunshots, Braden was caught on videotape partying at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. Hours after the bodies were found Feb. 11, deputies say Braden was arrested in a Pinellas motel with a firearm, $194,000 in cash and 43 pounds of marijuana.

Kellie Zorka died in a hospital days after authorities say the 27-year-old was shot in the head Feb. 24 in a strip club parking lot. Bryan Gregory Heater was arrested two days later, accused of firing into a crowd.

The grand jury indicted the 27-year-old New Port Richey man on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

Circuit Judge Thane Covert ordered that all three defendants be held in the county jail without bail.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or 727 869-6236.

Female murderer Cole receives death sentence

Tiffany Cole cries Thursday before being senteced to death for her role in the murder of Reggie Sumner and his wife Carol

By Paul Pinkham,
The Times-Union

The lone woman convicted in the murders of a disabled Jacksonville couple who were buried alive played a key role in their killings and should be put to death, a judge ordered Thursday.

The sentence will make Tiffany Ann Cole, 26, the only woman on Florida's Death Row. Two of her co-defendants also have been sentenced to death. "All of these defendants got exactly what they deserved," said Chief Assistant State Attorney Jay Plotkin, who tried all three cases. "Justice was done." Cole's lawyers argued that she wasn't a major participant in the 2005 robbery, kidnapping and murders of Carol and Reggie Sumner, both 61. They said she was under the control of her boyfriend, Michael James Jackson, who masterminded the murder plot. But Circuit Judge Michael Weatherby disagreed, noting that Cole held a flashlight when a grave was pre-dug near St. George, Ga., and was present when the Sumners were driven there bound and gagged in the trunk of their car. She knew the Sumners, who were friends of her parents and introduced them to their killers. The judge said she purchased the duct tape and gloves and later pawned jewelry and other items stolen from the Sumners' home.

During a phone call to Jacksonville police while the killers were at large, Cole impersonated Carol Sumner in a failed attempt to convince detectives the Sumners were still alive. "She was thoroughly involved," Weatherby said. "She knew exactly what she was doing and participated without hesitation." The last Jacksonville woman sentenced to death was Andrea Hicks Jackson, 50, who fatally shot a police officer in 1983. She later was re-sentenced to life. Florida has executed two women since re-instating the death penalty: serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2002 and Judy Buenoano, convicted of poisoning her husband, in 1998. "Whether you label it chauvinism or chivalry, judges and juries are very hesitant to sentence women to death," said Robert Batey, who teaches criminal law at Stetson University College of Law.

Florida State University College of Law professor Wayne Logan said other factors are that women tend to commit fewer premeditated or heinous murders and don't usually have lengthy criminal records. Both are factors that juries and judges can weigh in favor of imposing a death sentence. Cole didn't have a "substantial" record, but Weatherby found the murders were heinous and premeditated. Jurors recommended 9-3 that she be executed. Cole will go to Lowell Correctional Annex near Ocala, where the Department of Corrections has three women's Death Row cells. One is occupied by Virginia Larzelere, who is awaiting a new sentencing hearing in the 1991 murder-for-hire of her husband in Edgewater. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a judge's 2005 ruling undoing Larzelere's death sentence on grounds that her trial lawyers were ineffective. Cole briefly bowed her head, then turned and mouthed "I love you" to her weeping mother as Weatherby announced his sentence. Death penalty cases are automatically reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court. Her court-appointed attorney, Quentin Till, said she was prepared for the decision. He said he visited her in jail Wednesday night. "I told her to be strong," Till said. "... I still see her being utilized and manipulated by Michael Jackson." After the murders, the killers used the Sumners' bank cards to drain their accounts. Jacksonville homicide detectives, aided by federal marshals, used those transactions to trace Cole, Jackson and 20-year-old Alan Lyndell Wade to a motel in North Charleston, S.C., where they were arrested. Weatherby also sentenced Jackson and Wade to die.

A fourth defendant, 20-year-old Bruce Nixon, testified against the others and was sentenced to 55 years in prison for second-degree murder.

For the Sumners' family, the sentence ends years of coming to court and listening to the gruesome details of the murders. Revis Sumner, Reggie Sumner's brother, said Cole wrote to the family asking for forgiveness, and he said he has forgiven her. That doesn't mean she shouldn't suffer for her actions, he and other relatives said. "I pray for Tiffany. I pray for all of them," said the Rev. Jean Clark, Reggie Sumner's sister. "I'm grieved that these four young people have wasted their lives." paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107

Woman's death penalty overturned, gets new sentencing

Ludmilla Lelis

Sentinel Staff Writer

5:00 PM EST, February 28, 2008

TALLAHASSEE

The Florida Supreme Court today agreed that the woman who had been Florida's only female death row inmate should be resentenced.

Virginia Larzelere, 55, had been convicted of masterminding the 1991 murder of her husband, Edgewater dentist Norman Larzelere, at his dental office. She had been the last woman on the state's death row roster.

However, a trial court in 2005 overturned her sentence, ruling that her attorneys failed to present crucial evidence during the penalty phase of her 1992 trial.

Today, the Supreme Court agreed that Larzelere should get a new sentencing hearing, but not a new trial. The justices agreed that her attorneys at her original trial had failed to investigate her childhood and background and present testimony about possible childhood abuse that could have been presented to jurors deciding whether she should get the death sentence. The 1992 jury voted 7 to 5 to recommend her execution.

Larzelere stood to gain millions of dollars by the death of her husband, according to the state's case against her. Norman Larzelere was shot and killed by a masked gunman at his dental office on March 8, 1991. Jason Larzelere, Virginia's son from a previous marriage, was accused of being the triggerman, but was acquitted during a separate trial.

Breaking the Cycle

Mar 1, 2008, 13:18

Breaking the Cycle

By Victor Blackwell
First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- According to Florida's Department of Corrections, of more than 33,000 inmates who were released in 2006 - statistically, 32% of them will be re-arrested.

"It's not a problem that's not going to go away. It's a problem that we're absolutely going to need to deal with," said the re-entry coordinator with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Cathy Chadeayne.

Charles Whitehead re-offended several times during the 1990s.

He was arrested six times in five years. Whitehead says the fight to change one's life starts the moment an offender walks out of the prison.

"Do you have a good time or do you seek a future? [That's the] first choice. Most of us, most of us want to have a good time," said Whitehead

"Families say we can't wait, we're going to have a party. I say to them, don't," said Chadeayne.

"That party usually contains alcohol, drugs on the side. That one celebration normally causes us to get back on course," Whitehead added.

Chedeayne's department operates Project Dismas.

Named for the patron saint of redeemed thieves, the program helps ex-offenders avoid those pitfalls.

The program employs a hammer and hope philosophy. The hope comes in the form of counseling and success stories.

"[The hammer comes] If you don't take the help and you continue your life. You need to know that it's not going to be state court anymore. It's going to be federal court."

Also, Jacksonville Re-Entry Center (JREC) helps ex-offenders find housing, social services.

But the biggest challenge for ex offenders who want to change their lives is finding legitimate employment.

"When I went to a place, they'd say no, you have a criminal background. So, I just got discouraged and just moved on," said Whitehead.

"If we don't provide opportunities and we keep shutting doors in people's faces, we're going to get more of the same," Chadeayne added.

Programs like Ready4Work are giving ex-offenders a second chance by offering life coaching, training and job placement.

"I'm not justifying or being soft on crime or criminals in any way, when I say that we've got to help. I'm thinking smart. if we don't help people change and help people who want to change make that happen, then we're just setting ourselves up and them for more pain," said Chadeayne.

Eventually, Whitened got a job, turned his life around and now he owns Kingdom Motor Kars in Jacksonville.

He employs ex-offenders and men on probation.

"That to me is the most rewarding. To see those who have gone through that fire, reach back and bring others through it," said Chadeayne.

Whitehead now mentors inmates through the Men of Promise program. He's giving them hope that there is a better life.

"Things are possible outside. I'm an example," said Whitehead.