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.