In 5th Judicial Circuit, Denise Lyn, Ric Howard get the nod

Published Saturday, August 16, 2008 10:18 AM


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On Aug. 26, voters in the 5th Judicial Circuit (Hernando, Citrus, Sumter, Marion and Lake counties) will choose two judges in non-partisan races. The two judges will be based in Citrus County, but voters in all five counties will have a say. Circuit Court judges serve six-year terms and are paid $145,000 annually. In Group 3, which has three candidates, if no one receives 50 percent of the votes cast plus one vote, the top two finishers will move on to the Nov. 4 general election. Here are the Times' recommendations: Denice Lyn Group 3

Three talented and community-minded attorneys are on the ballot. The edge goes to Denise Lyn.

Lyn, 41, of Hernando, has been a lawyer for more than 10 years, following a five-year stint in the Air Force and a short career in real estate. She has run her own law office since 2001 after working for four years in a prominent law firm in Inverness.

Her practice ranges from general litigation and family law to representing several governmental clients such as the Citrus County Property Appraiser to the Homosassa Special Water District. She previously was the attorney for the city of Inverness.

The judgeship being vacated by Barbara Gurrola in Citrus County handles family court matters. Lyn's experience in this court as an attorney, a longtime volunteer legal advocate for children in dependency proceedings, and as a mediator has prepared her to take this next step.

The major weakness in Lyn's professional background happens to be her opponents' greatest strengths. She has little, if any, experience in criminal court. Both Sandy Hawkins and Michael Lamberti are career prosecutors.

Hawkins, 53, of Belleview, brings an inspiring personal story to her campaign. A farmer's daughter, Hawkins has been a single mother for 19 years and raised six sons. She worked two jobs to put herself through the police academy, the University of Florida and Stetson College of Law.

For 11 years, Hawkins has served as a prosecutor in Marion County, handling thousands of felony cases and more than 100 trials. She has worked on civil matters for police agencies and has experience in shelter hearings and Baker Act cases.

In 2006, Hawkins lost a close race for judge to Edward Scott despite being outspent by more than $225,000. Hawkins attributes her strong performance to the personal connections she made with ordinary citizens along the campaign trail.

Michael Lamberti, 48, of Spring Hill has been in private practice for several months after serving nearly 10 years as a prosecutor in the 5th Circuit. He has also spent a short time with the state Department of Children and Families, and earlier in his career, he was a claims representative for the New York State Insurance Fund handling workers' compensation and disability cases.

Since 1999, Lamberti has volunteered with Teen Court in Hernando County. As a prosecutor, he has handled numerous misdemeanor, juvenile delinquency and adult felony cases.

Both Hawkins and Lamberti would bring a prosecutor's perspective to the bench along with their varied life experiences. Both have worked hard to get to this point in their professional careers and have the training and skills to serve the citizens of the 5th Circuit well.

All three candidates have the necessary temperament for the bench and similar philosophies on sentencing guidelines, the value of diversion programs such as Teen Court and Drug Court, and the need for a judge to streamline the court's docket for maximum efficiency.

In the Group 3 race, the Times recommends Denice Lyn, who gets a slight edge through her extensive family court and governmental experience and her numerous civic involvements.


Richard "Ric" Howard Group 11

Richard "Ric'' Howard has handled thousands of cases and presided over hundreds of trials since being appointed the 5th Circuit Court bench by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2000. Most of these proceedings have been routine, but two cases have brought widespread criticism and showcased starkly different aspects of his personality and judgment.

The 2007 trial of John Couey for the abduction and murder of Jessica Lunsford thrust Howard into a national spotlight. By all accounts, he handled this emotionally charged trial fairly and efficiently.

But there is another case that speaks louder about Howard's judicial temperament. When considered with other similar cases, it raises concerns the judge may be biased against young male defendants, is too prideful to reconsider the fairness of his rulings, and is blind to the devastating impacts of his decisions.

William Thornton was 17 in 2004 when he skidded through a stop sign on a poorly lit road one night in Citrus County, colliding with an SUV whose occupants were not wearing seat belts and who had drugs and alcohol in the vehicle. The young man and woman in the SUV were ejected and killed; Thornton was seriously injured.

On the advice of a distracted public defender, Thornton went before Howard without benefit of an accident investigation or trial and made an open plea to two counts of vehicular homicide. The state recommended house arrest or time in a juvenile facility for Thornton, who had no prior record.

After noting he had sentenced Thornton's father to 30 years in prison for an unrelated offense, Howard gave William Thornton the maximum sentence allowed: 30 years in an adult prison.

This travesty of justice has generated headlines and appeals for mercy or at least a reconsideration for nearly three years. Just last week, an appellate court denied Thornton's latest effort to have Howard removed as judge in any rehearing of the case.

None of this would be necessary had Howard shown compassion, fairness or understanding from the outset. Instead, he issued a vindictive punishment far beyond what the circumstances warranted. Citing the Canons of Judicial Ethics, Howard has declined to publicly comment on the Thornton case.

Were this an aberration, Howard might have a point in saying this one case should not define his 30-year career in public service. But taken with other instances, such as dealing out maximum terms in teen sex cases and sending a bipolar teenager, Adam Bollenback, to prison for 10 years for stealing beer from a neighbor's garage, a very troubling pattern emerges.

Howard strenuously denies a charge made by, among others, his opponent in the race, Inverness attorney Rhonda Portwood, that he is biased. He notes that his rulings have all been upheld on appeal and says that he has presided over hundreds of cases involving young men without controversy.

If he is to be judged by one case, Howard said, make it the Couey trial. It had a greater impact to the citizens of Florida, he said, and he alone among Citrus County judges was able to take it on as the county's only death penalty-qualified judge.

For voters to dismiss him, however, they would need an experienced alternative. While well-meaning, Portwood simply is not ready to become a felony court judge.

Portwood, 45, of Inverness, became a lawyer in 2002 after running a beauty salon in Perry, Fla., for 12 years. She worked as a prosecutor for seven months in 2003 before joining an Inverness law firm. She has run her own law office for nearly four years handling cases in family court, where she is also a mediator and attorney ad litem for children.

The highlight of Portwood's legal career came in 2007 when she successfully argued a case before the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of a man who had lost his parental rights during an adoption proceeding.

Portwood and her husband have a blended family that includes 15 children ages 13 to 34. She cites her life experiences as helping prepare her to be a judge.

Portwood acknowledges she got into this race more by default (she did not want to run against Sandy Hawkins for the open judgeship) and did not know much about Howard. She has since focused her campaign on his harsh sentences.

Howard, 55, of Brooksville, married and the father of three grown daughters, has been a prosecutor, defense attorney and judge in Florida for 30 years. He has managed government and private law offices and helped start a lawyer mentoring program in Brooksville.

The public is left hoping that Howard has learned from the biting community criticism. Steps such as his helping to launch a mental health court in Citrus County indicate that he may be listening.

With no viable alternative, the Times recommends Ric Howard in the Group 11 race.



Opportunity to reply

We welcome candidate responses. The Times offers candidates not recommended by the editorial board an opportunity to reply. Candidates should send their replies by 5 p.m. Tuesday to the attention of C.T. Bowen of the Times editorial staff by e-mail to bowen@sptimes.com, by fax to (352) 754-6133 or deliver to the Hernando Times at 15365 Cortez Blvd. Brooksville, FL 34613. Replies are limited to 250 words.

Coralrose suspect 'a typical burglar'

Patrick Murphy

By John Davis john.davis@heraldtribune.com



Published: Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.

It was Jan. 16, 2007, almost four months to the day that 6-year-old Coralrose Fullwood's body was found in a vacant lot near her North Port home. North Port Police detectives Carrie Olivo and Chris Morales sat across from Patrick Murphy in the Charlotte County jail.

Finding Coralrose's killer was a top priority for North Port police, but other cases had to be worked as well, even small-time burglaries like this one. A stolen ATV had been found in the yard of Murphy's North Port home. Olivo and Morales were building the case against him.

The pair had no way of knowing that they sat within arm's reach of the man who would later be charged with Coralrose's kidnapping, rape and murder.

Murphy, 27, passed through Southwest Florida's legal system for years without drawing much scrutiny. He was inconspicuous because hundreds of others in the system appeared to be just like him: blue-collar guys who had let drugs get the best of them.

Those who crossed Murphy's path in recent years say they never suspected that he could be capable of the crimes he is now accused of committing.

He did not seem especially evil or stick out in any way.

Even when Murphy came up as the case's prime suspect in law enforcement circles last month, Morales did not remember him.

"He was just a typical burglar," Morales said. "No different than any of the other burglars we've been interviewing up to this date. Nothing stuck out."

At the time of Coralrose's death, Murphy was on probation in Charlotte County for marijuana possession, a misdemeanor. Records show that he met with his probation officer on Sept. 5, 12 days before Coralrose was abducted and killed. Murphy met with his probation officer again on Oct. 5.

During that time, multiple agencies were working to find Coralrose's killer. Hundreds of voluntary DNA samples would be taken from residents during the investigation, but Murphy's house, about two miles away from the crime scene, was outside of the police canvass area. He continued his career in petty crime, unconnected to the escalating search for Coralrose's killer.

Records show that Murphy's probation was routine, his violations common: He skipped meetings with the probation officer and his court-ordered drug test came back positive for methamphetamine.

In Charlotte County, a meth addict arrested for stealing is common, not enough of a crime to raise eyebrows. So in June of last year, when Punta Gorda police interrogated Murphy about other burglaries, his situation was unremarkable.

The Coralrose case was nine months old when Punta Gorda detectives Thomas Lewis and Harvey Ayers met with Murphy at the Charlotte County jail.

Murphy admitted to stealing tools and generators to trade for drugs, but nothing more serious, nothing that would set off any alarms.

He asked for drug counseling.

"I'm very sorry," Murphy told the detectives. "That drug takes over your body and you really have no control over what you're doing. You do but you don't."

Even Lewis, now a captain in the department, did not remember questioning Murphy, though he sat with him for more than two hours. Lewis had to go back through police records to refresh his memory.

"I didn't get like a pedophile vibe from him," Lewis said.

Detectives in Punta Gorda and North Port did not know at the time that they were laying the groundwork for the felony conviction that would prompt the state to collect a DNA sample from Murphy. That sample matched the DNA of a sample taken from Coralrose's body, authorities said, and led to Murphy's arrest on Tuesday. He remains in the Sarasota County jail without bail.

For others who had contact with Murphy in recent years, Tuesday's arrest is an example of how impossible it is to predict what someone might be capable of.

"We were all feeling devastated for the loss," said Jon Embury, who was Murphy's probation officer for part of 2006 and is now a court administrator.

"And just the fact that we had contact with him has devastated us," Embury said.

If Murphy is guilty of raping and killing Coralrose, he held close to that secret even as he admitted to other crimes and let his drug use go unchecked. The secret was not revealed in interrogation rooms or by the law enforcement databases checked by Murphy's probation officer. And Murphy remains silent in jail, even as he faces murder charges and possibly the death penalty -- a far leap from the petty crimes for which he has already been convicted.

"You never know. You just never know what else this person's done," Morales said. "Some other crime he committed elsewhere, and you're just talking to him about a simple burglary. You just don't know. You only go with what you got."

June 6, 2007 | Deputy's killer found guilty

June 6, 2007 Deputy's killer found guilty
BY WANDA J. DEMARZO

A Fort Lauderdale man who claimed he was suffering from AIDS-related dementia when he gunned down Broward Sheriff's Deputy Todd Fatta three years ago was convicted of first-degree murder by a federal jury Tuesday.
The panel of eight women and four men, apparently deadlocked at one point, nevertheless continued deliberating for four days before finding Kenneth Wilk, 45, guilty of murder, possession of child pornography, obstruction of justice and the attempted murder of BSO Lt. Angelo Cedeño.

Fatta's family and a handful of BSO deputies in the courtroom openly wept as the verdict was announced.

"Justice has finally been served, " said a tearful Josephine Fatta, whose son Wilk shot to death on Aug. 19, 2004. Fatta, 33, was part of a multi-agency federal task force that raided Wilk's home to arrest him and serve a search warrant for child pornography.

Fatta's brother, choking back tears, said the family "is honored by the jury's verdict."

"We're so happy that it turned out the way it did and that phase one is over with, " said Joe Fatta Jr. "We're very pleased with the verdict."

Wilk stared blankly, showing no emotion at the verdict.

The penalty phase of the trial begins Thursday, as prosecutors argue for a death sentence. If they are successful, Wilk will be the first person in South Florida to be given a federal death sentence.

The jury's decision did not come easily.

At 2:25 p.m. Tuesday, the panel sent a note to U.S. District Judge James Cohn indicating that they were struggling.

"We are unable to reach a unanimous decision, " the note said.

Ten minutes later, they asked the judge to give them more time.

Another 10 minutes went by, and then, a verdict.

The announcement was delayed about 20 more minutes to give Cedeño time to get to the courtroom.

Cedeño and a dozen BSO deputies, including Sheriff Ken Jenne, filled the courtroom. Cedeño smiled broadly as he heard the words "guilty" over and over again. Muffled cheers could be heard throughout the courtroom.

"The verdict sends a strong message to South Florida and the rest of the country that the death, murder, of a law enforcement officer will not be tolerated, " Jenne said outside the courtroom later.

Jurors are not permitted to comment before the end of the penalty phase.

IMPASSE

But several times during deliberations, there were indications that one or more jurors were at an impasse. At one point, they asked that testimony be read back to them, a request that Cohn denied, telling them they needed to rely on their own recollection. At another point, they asked for a legal dictionary, which was also denied.

Lilly Ann Sanchez, a Miami attorney and former federal prosecutor who tried a federal death penalty case, said that even though the jurors are death-penalty qualified -- which means they are not averse to the death penalty -- it is a large responsibility to find someone guilty who could be sentenced to death. "It sometimes causes them to think twice, to hesitate, about their decision, " Sanchez said. "And there could have been one or two jurors on the fence, [but] not too far over that they couldn't be persuaded to join the rest of the jurors."

Prosecutors argued that the crime was premeditated because Wilk had been stockpiling arms in anticipation of a police raid. That morning, he had crouched behind a kitchen counter before firing his high-powered Winchester hunting rifle as Fatta entered the house, prosecutors said.

Wilk fired at least two rounds, one hitting Fatta in the chest near his heart, and the other wounding Cedeño in his hand.

But during the trial, Wilk's attorney, Bill Matthewman, told jurors the physical, medical and mental evidence in the case all raised reasonable doubt about whether Wilk planned to kill Fatta.

Wilk suffered from a hearing loss in the days leading up to the raid on his Coral Highlands home, Matthewman said. Matthewman pointed to calls between Wilk and his boyfriend, Kelly Ray Jones, in which Wilk had trouble hearing. He said Wilk was using ear drops in the days before the raid.

Wilk woke up that morning not expecting police to raid his home, Matthewman said. He added that Wilk's home had been targeted in the past by gay-bashers and that he had been threatened over the Internet.

Fatta's parents and brother, who flew down from Buffalo to attend the trial, found much of the proceedings hard to bear. Fatta's mother and his sister, Linda Kirtley of Lake Worth, often wept.

Around her neck, Josephine Fatta wore a photo of her son in uniform and a law enforcement star. Engraved on the back of the star, "End of Watch Aug. 19, 2004." Wilk's attorneys, Matthewman and Rafael Rodriguez, contended that Wilk was in the grips of AIDS-related dementia and shot the deputies in self-defense.

WILK TESTIFIED

In an unusual move -- most defense attorneys caution their clients against taking the stand in capital cases -- Wilk testified for seven days. Wilk said he thought the deputies were intruders and that an ear infection prevented him from hearing them announce themselves.

"When I approached Deputy Fatta, " Wilk said with a pause, tearing up, "I, I, I saw a radio near him and a vest, but I wasn't 100 percent sure. I thought at that point he was a policeman."

Wilk, who testified he learned he had HIV in 1985, said he did not know there was a warrant for his arrest on the morning of the raid, and he did not know who had entered his home until after the shooting.

When asked by Matthewman if he fired a gun on Aug. 19, Wilk matter-of-factly replied "Yes, sir, I did."

Prosecutor John Kastrenakes argued that Wilk shot the deputies simply because they were police officers. Prosecutors presented letters written by Wilk in which he repeatedly indicated he wanted to harm police officers for what he saw as unfair child-pornography charges against his live-in lover, Jones. He urged jurors to disregard Wilk's arguments of self-defense, insanity and AIDS-related dementia.

Jones, a registered sex offender, was in the St. Lucie County Jail on federal charges of sending illicit images of children to an undercover detective over the Internet. Jones pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and is serving more than 24 years in federal prison.

On Thursday the penalty phase will get under way.

The jury must decide unanimously to sentence him to death. Federal death sentences are relatively rare, partly because most murder cases are tried in state courts. Federal prosecutors say there have been no death penalty convictions in South Florida.

Meanwhile, a civil lawsuit the Fatta family filed against BSO is pending. In the wrongful death suit, the family claims that Fatta's murder could have been avoided had the agency used specially trained and outfitted SWAT team members to serve the warrants.

Authorities knew before the raid that Wilk was armed and dangerous, they contend, and several members of the task force had advised using SWAT.





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Softball coach accused of sex with teen player

August 15, 2008
A Sumter County softball coach is free on bond after he was accused of having sex with one of his players.

Jose Gonzales, 35, was arrested Saturday and charged with five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He posted $5,000 bail early Sunday.

Investigators became aware of the allegations after the victim's parents became suspicious of her interactions with Gonzales and called the Sumter Sheriff's Office, according to Lt. Bobby Caruthers.

The victim told investigators she and Gonzales had intercourse in the back seat of his car earlier that day. She was able to describe the back seat of Gonzales' car and told investigators she had thrown a tissue out of the car's window near the parking lot where the incident took place, which deputies later recovered, Caruthers said.



Investigators then arrested Gonzales, who denied the allegations, Caruthers said.

The victim was a player on an independent traveling softball team for 15- to 17-year-old girls, which Gonzales coached. Gonzales was also a board member of the South Sumter Girls Softball League, but he was dropped from the board after his arrest, Caruthers said.

Investigators are interviewing players on the victim's team and in the softball league to determine if there are other victims. Caruthers encouraged players' parents to speak with their daughters about the incident and relay information about it and others to Deputy Sheriff Andy Wills at 352-793-0222.

Helen Eckinger and Martin E. Comas of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Judge rejects killer's request for evidentiary hearing

A judge today rejected convicted killer Richard Henyard's request to set aside his death sentence.

The ruling by Lake Circuit Judge Mark J. Hill will most likely be appealed immediately by Mark Gruber and Daphney Branham, lawyers with the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, the state-funded attorneys who represent Florida's Death-Row inmates.

Henyard, 34, is set to die by lethal injection Sept. 23 for the abduction and murders of 7-year-old Jamilya Lewis and her 3-year-old sister Jasmine. Henyard also is convicted of abducting, raping and attempting to kill the girls' mother, Dorothy.

With vivid and chilling details, the 19-page ruling recounts Henyard's crimes and finds no merit in "newly discovered evidence," dubious testimony of Jason Nawara, another convicted Lake County killer who suggests Henyard did not fire the shots that killed the girls. (Nawara now says Henyard's co-defendant, Alfonza Smalls, boasted about being the "killa.")

For Nawara's testimony to be persuasive, Henyard would have to be considered a "relatively minor" participant in the crimes of Jan. 30, 1993, which are among the worst to have been documented in Lake County.

Hill's ruling - sent today to the Florida Supreme Court - declares that to be impossible.

"Mr. Henyard hatched the diabolical plan," the judge's order reads. "Mr. Henyard bragged about his intentions days before he event. Mr. Henyard chose the location to carry out his malignant plan. Mr. Henyard drove the car with the abducted family. Mr. Henyard was the first to rape Ms. Lewis. Mr. Henyard shot Ms. Lewis repeatedly, leaving her for dead. Mr. Henyard continued to drive the car and then pulled over and lifted the 3-year-old out of the car. Mr. Henyard was four feet from the victims when bullets entered their bodies."

Henyard and Smalls carjacked Ms. Lewis and her daughters from the parking lot of a Eustis grocery store because Henyard needed a vehicle to drive to a night club in Orlando and to visit his father in South Florida.

Smalls, who was 14 at the time - an age that made him ineligible for the death penalty, is serving life in prison. He and Nawara, who raped and murdered his stepsister, had been podmates in a juvenile wing of the county jail.

Trial to begin for sex offender accused of killing Sarah Lunde

Tampa, Florida -- After three years in legal limbo, the murder trial of David Onstott is set to start Monday morning. Onstott is accused of killing 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in 2005, launching a search for the girl that lasted a week.

Prosecutors face an uphill struggle to get a conviction in the trial.

The judge has thrown out a confession Onstott made to detectives, and the state will build its case without any physical evidence linking him to the crime.

When Sarah Lunde disappeared, it hit the bay area hard. She was the third teenage girl to vanish in just a little over a year.

It was April 2005. Police and volunteers had searched for Carlie Brucia the previous year, and Jessica Lunsford just a month before. Again, they took to the woods near her home in Ruskin and fanned out through neighborhoods, looking and hoping.

The search lasted almost a week. A search dog finally found Sarah's body in an abandoned fish farm. She was partially clothed and weighed down by concrete blocks.

Even before that discovery, detectives had gotten a confession from David Onstott, a convicted sex offender who used to date Sarah's mother.

But jurors won't hear about that.

The judge threw out the confession after Onstott's lawyers argued that he'd been questioned even though he had demanded to speak to a lawyer.

That decision has delayed this trial dramatically. It has also forced prosecutors to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.

Without the confession, they're going to be seeking life in prison and trying Onstott based on circumstantial evidence. The state has no physical evidence linking Onstott to the crime.

However, prosecutors do have testimony from Sarah's brother that puts Onstott at Sarah's house the day she disappeared. And, since he was arrested, Onstott has talked to loved ones about having a violent soul, and breaking all of the Ten Commandments.

After three years of motions and hearings, jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

As an example of how long these legal delays have gone on, consider this: Jessica Lunsford disappeared about a month before Sarah Lunde. Jessica's killer, John Couey, has already been convicted and condemned and has now been sitting on death row for almost a year.

We'll have every development in the Onstott trial -- with up-to-the-minute updates --here on tampabays10.com.

Grayson Kamm, Tampa Bay's 10 News

Arrest in Coralrose Fullwood murder

North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis announces Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested in the rape and killing of Coralrose Fullwood.

By John Davis john.davis@heraldtribune.com


Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 12:57 p.m.

NORTH PORT - Nearly two years after 6-year-old Coralrose Fullwood disappeared from her bed in the middle of the night, detectives have charged a state prison inmate with her murder.

Patrick Dewane Murphy, 27, who lived two miles away from Coralrose's North Port home when she was killed in September 2006, was also charged Tuesday with her kidnapping and rape.

Murphy had been in Avon Park state prison since February after being convicted of grand theft and burglary. While he was in prison, authorities took his DNA sample and police say they learned about two weeks ago that it matched that of DNA found on Coralrose's body.

Detectives said they still believe there are other people who were involved in the crime.

And they have not dispelled suspicion of Coralrose's father, Dale Fullwood, who is in prison on a probation violation charge related to child pornography found on his computer during the investigation.

Murphy has declined to speak with detectives, said North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis, who added that Tuesday's publicity led to a handful of tips about him that warrant "immediate follow-up."

Lewis also said officers have found no connection between Murphy and Coralrose or her family, but detectives do not think the crime was random.

"We're still looking very aggressively at a connection between Murphy and someone else," Lewis said.

Coralrose's mother, Ellen-Beth Fullwood, said the arrest came as a relief.

"I'm grateful that we've gotten to this point, finally," she told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.

Lewis gave scant details Tuesday, and a judge has sealed the affidavit in which officers outline the evidence they have against Murphy.

Since Murphy was connected to Coralrose's body by a state-operated DNA database on July 26, detectives have redoubled their efforts in the case, Lewis said.

"Investigators want to learn a lot more about what Mr. Murphy was doing in September 2006."

On Sept. 16, Dale Fullwood worked a late shift as bartender at a North Fort Myers bar. He said he saw her at 2 a.m. when he arrived home from work.

Sleeping in the three-bedroom house that night were Dale Fullwood, Coralrose's mother Ellen-Beth, and five children. Other rooms in the house had been converted into bedrooms, so each child could have his or her own room.

Family members noticed Coralrose was missing about 7 a.m., when they awoke to celebrate the birthday of her sister, September Fullwood.

She was found by a neighbor about noon, wrapped in a comforter at a vacant lot a few blocks from the Fullwoods' North Port home.

The DNA link between Murphy and Coralrose was made in late July by analysts in a lab operated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Like all felons in Florida, Murphy had a DNA sample taken after his conviction.

Though he lived near the Fullwoods, Murphy was not one of the hundreds of people who submitted to DNA testing by police so they could be eliminated as suspects in the girl's death, police said.

Before Murphy's arrest Tuesday morning, investigators spent about two weeks gathering information about Murphy and his whereabouts at the time of the murder.

"There really was no need to rush it," said E.J. Picolo, FDLE special agent in charge. "We knew where he was."

Murphy was then transferred to the Hardee Correctional Institution, where he met with investigators on Friday.

Murphy refused to speak with investigators about the Coralrose case and was transferred to the Sarasota County Jail on Monday night.

In his order to seal the documents, Circuit Judge Robert Bennett wrote that releasing the record would jeopardize the ongoing investigation.

Investigators from North Port, FDLE, Sarasota and Charlotte counties will continue to work the case, and have ramped up the investigation based on the DNA evidence and Murphy's arrest, Lewis said.

Investigators credited the state policy of gathering DNA information on all felons as key in breaking this and other cases.

"It just multiplies the potential for you to be able to solve any crime," said Picolo, who added that the number of cases being cleared by DNA "is literally exploding before our eyes."

Dennis Nales, the 12th Judicial Circuit chief assistant state attorney, said it was too early for prosecutors to decide whether they would pursue the death penalty.

"We haven't even seen the reports, we have to review the case and review his criminal history before we make that decision," Nales said.

Dale Fullwood is in the Jackson Correctional Institution. He served a year in jail after pleading no contest last year to possessing child pornography, a felony. The pornography was found on Dale Fullwood's computer.

Police Chief Lewis has said that the images on Fullwood's computer were not related to the murder investigation.

Ellen-Beth Fullwood and Dale Fullwood separated soon after Coralrose's death.

The day after his release from jail in February, Dale Fullwood went to a relative's house to pick up some of his possessions.

While there, he reportedly touched his grand-niece on the hand, which a judge found to be a violation of his sex offender probation.

He was sentenced to three years in prison.


Staff writers Anthony Cormier, Todd Ruger and Kate Spinner contributed to this report.

Prisoner hopes evidence will set him free

William Dillon, 48, speaks at Hardee Correctional Institution about the 27 years he has spent in prison for a murder he says he did not commit. Recent DNA testing of crucial evidence in the case could back up his claim. (Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY)

After 27 years, Dillon's attorneys cite faulty evidence used at trial

BY JOHN A. TORRES
FLORIDA TODAY

BOWLING GREEN -- William Dillon plays the dream over and over in his head in his prison cell east of St. Petersburg, 130 miles from his childhood home on the Space Coast.

He is standing in a crowded courtroom. A judge bangs his gavel and grants his freedom.

Then, after greeting loved ones, Dillon does the thing he says he has longed for most during his 27 years behind bars: The 48-year-old goes swimming.

"Being able to swim, in the ocean or pool, that's really the main thing I miss," Dillon said during a recent exclusive interview at Hardee Correctional Institution. "I used to be an excellent swimmer. I just miss that feeling of being underwater. That's what I miss the most."

Dillon's freedom could be one step closer, as his attorneys -- including the Innocence Project of Florida -- prepare to file a motion calling for his immediate release based on new DNA test results.

The Satellite Beach man has spent 27 years of a life sentence in prison for the murder of James Dvorak of Indian Harbour Beach. FLORIDA TODAY first reported on the DNA evidence last month. "I don't know what the world is anymore," Dillon said, his steely gray eyes nearly a perfect match with the prison bars.

The motion could be filed as early as today. A judge could grant his freedom, schedule a hearing or deny the motion, which prosecutors say is the right choice.

The recent DNA tests on a key piece of evidence -- a bloody shirt involved in the murder -- exclude Dillon as the person who wore the shirt. Someone else's DNA was in sweat stains on the armpits and neckline.

"The DNA results devastate the state's case against Dillon," said Seth Miller, attorney with the Innocence Project of Florida, a nonprofit that works to exonerate prisoners using DNA evidence.

He said the shirt was the primary physical evidence used to link Dillon with the crime. Now, he said, the shirt is "powerful evidence of innocence."

Assistant State Attorney Wayne Holmes, now representing the state in the case against Dillon, said last month that the DNA evidence is not enough to set Dillon free. He did not want to comment on specifics of possible motions.

"Responses to any factual or legal issues raised by the motion will be addressed by this office through responsive pleadings that might be filed with the Court, or through evidence and arguments that might be made in subsequent court proceedings," Holmes said in an e-mail to FLORIDA TODAY.

Since Dillon received the news July 28 that DNA tests came back in his favor, he said other inmates have been very supportive.

But after spending nearly three decades in prison, Dillon said he's tempering his excitement until the day he is released.

"I feel completely exhilarated to the point where I have to hold myself in check," he said. "But I see it, I really see it happening. I hold myself in tight, and I'm at peace with whatever happens. I've waited a long, long time for this."

Path to conviction

Dillon tells a detailed story of how he came to be convicted of the murder:

Then 21 years old, he was smoking a joint in a parked car near where Dvorak had been murdered five days earlier, Aug. 17, 1981, on Canova Beach.

When he told police officers he was showing his brother the crime scene, he became a suspect, even though he told police he had only read about it in the newspaper.

He bragged at a party the following night that police wanted to question him about the murder. When friends started teasing him about it, Dillon said he didn't care "because I didn't kill anyone."

A few days later, the friends told Dillon that police had been looking for him at the beach. Dillon, who was living at home with his parents, went to a pay phone and called them. Police picked him up and started questioning him.

"I answered all the questions as best as I know how. Then I went home and told my parents what happened," he said. "That night, they came back to my house and said they had more questions."

Investigators enlisted a dog handler -- later proven a fraud -- and his German shepherd to identify Dillon from the scent found on the bloody T-shirt.

"They kept telling me to confess, that I would get manslaughter and could be out after 18 months," Dillon said. "I said: 'That's fine and dandy, but I'm not confessing to something I didn't commit.' "

Dillon was charged with murder.

His girlfriend of two weeks, Donna Parrish, testified against him after sleeping with the lead investigator in the case. She recanted her testimony two weeks after Dillon was found guilty.

The judge did not grant Dillon's request for a new trial, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Remaining evidence

Investigators picked the bloody, yellow T-shirt from a Dumpster after a witness said he had picked up a hitchhiker carrying the shirt the same night as the murder. The witness said he performed oral sex on the man, who left the shirt in the back of his truck.

But the description of the man was not a match for Dillon.

"The shirt was by far the state's most important piece of physical evidence," Miller said. "At trial, they mentioned it dozens of times. It supposedly linked Dillon to the crime. Now we know that it links someone else to the crime. Had the jury known this, they certainly would have acquitted."

Other evidence collected from the murder scene -- items that DNA testing would have provided conclusive proof one way or another -- no longer can be located. The evidence included fingernail scrapings, cigarette butts and hair collected from the victim's hand.

Not able to see God

Dillon says his anger helped him survive those first few years in prison. He said terrible things happened to him behind bars, things he will not talk about.

"You go in very angry," he said. "I think my anger saved me -- that and my lawyer telling me not to do anything stupid. There were many times when I lost hope. There was really no dealing with it. You have two choices -- you can live or die. "

Later, he said, it was his faith in God that helped him endure.

"I wasn't seeing God at that time, but he was seeing me," he said, explaining that prisoners do not find God when locked up. "They already have God in them, but the world doesn't let them see it."

Dillon, who works out regularly, works in the prison's band room, issuing instruments to those who play. He has taught himself to play the guitar, bass and piano while incarcerated. He listens mainly to Christian rock music.

His favorite song is called "Find You Waiting," by Decemberadio.

"It says: 'I've heard the angels, I've seen the devil, I fought with the lion and walked through the fire,' " he said. "It goes on to say: 'You've been there for me when times were rough, and now I'm on my knees.' It just glorifies to me what I've seen. I have seen Satan and I have listened to the angels, and I'm coming out of it, I'm coming out."

As far as Dillon is concerned, the only way he will leave the walls and razor wire of Hardee Correctional Institution is if he's exonerated or found not guilty at a new trial.

"I'm not taking any kind of deal for anything," he said. "If they want to do another trial, then I just want them to use the truth. I just want to make sure there is no more fabricated evidence. We know how they play."

Contact Torres at 242-3649 or jtorres@floridatoday.com.

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

Death penalty phase of Rhonda Norman's trial delayed

By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL susan_spencer_wendel@pbpost.com

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 15, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — A judge this afternoon agreed to delay the death penalty phase of Rhonda Norman's trial that was scheduled to start next week.

Both Norman's defense lawyers have had urgent family emergencies since Norman's conviction last month in the stabbing death of her ex-boyfriend's mother, Jane Tackaberry, and the attack upon then 6-year-old Elijah Tackaberry, her grandson.

Circuit Judge Sandra McSorley said she will discuss rescheduling with jurors for early November.

Defense attorney Gregg Lerman will take over from defense attorney Michael Hanrahan the primary role of defending Norman.

The same panel that convicted Norman was scheduled to return next week to hear evidence and decide whether to recommend that Norman die for her crime or spend the rest of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Norman, 36, told police she planned the homicide to get back at her ex-boyfriend, John Tackaberry, for cheating on her and to get back at his cosmetologist mother for kicking her out of the house.

Police say Norman enlisted a man from the street, later identified as Wes McGee, to help in the attack. According to police, the pair entered Tackaberry's home and when they left, Jane Tackaberry was dead and little Elijah's throat was slashed. He survived.

Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty against 23-year-old McGee, who has yet to go to trial. He is scheduled for trial Sept. 3. Public Defender Carey Haughwout asked McSorley Friday to delay his trial a few months to give his assistant public defenders more time to prepare.

Haughwout said McGee's attorneys had completed just a fraction of the work they needed to do to prepare for trial. Haughwout also cited prejudicial pre-trial publicity and inaccurate facts about McGee that came out during Norman's trial, saying time could help assuage those issues.

Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams questioned why after nearly six months of handling the case and generating stacks of reports, McGee's attorneys now say they haven't gotten work done. "I don't get what's going on," Williams said.

McSorley asked Haughwout to specify in writing more exact reasons for a delay before she will rule.

Jeffrey Green Gets Life Without Parole in Murder

Winter Haven Home Invasion Death

By Jason Geary jason.geary@theledger.com

The Ledger


Published: Friday, August 15, 2008 at 11:37 a.m.


BARTOW Jeffrey Lenard Green Jr. was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Robert Cameron.

Prosecutors say Green was one of five men who conspired to steal money and drugs from Cameron’s condo at the Winterset complex off Cypress Gardens

Boulevard in Winter Haven on Aug. 22, 2007.

A jury convicted Green, 24, of first-degree murder, armed burglary and armed robbery last month.

Circuit Judge Mark Carpanini also sentenced Green to life sentences on the armed burglary and armed robbery charges. They will run concurrently with the murder sentence.

During Green’s trial, witnesses testified that Cameron, a former star swimmer for Lake Region High School, was known to sell hydroponically grown marijuana.

Green and four other men were arrested on murder charges related to a botched home invasion that left Cameron dead.

One of those men, Desmond “Des” Davis, pleaded no contest Friday to second-degree murder, armed burglary and armed robbery.

As part of a plea deal, Davis, 22, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and must testify against his co-defendants.

Antonio “Red” Neal, 21, accepted a similar plea deal July 17 and received the same sentence, court records show.

Two other men continue to face charges in the case.

Prosecutors accuse one of Cameron’s friends, Kelly Washington, 20, of helping

hatch the Aug. 22 plan to rob him.

Assistant State Attorney John Aguero has said the plan did not call for anyone to get hurt.

Witnesses testified that two men armed with handguns jumped over the balcony of the condo and demanded the drugs.

Cameron struggled with one of the intruders and was shot, witnesses said.

The bullet pierced Cameron’s arm and traveled into his body, causing fatal injuries.

Washington continues to await a trial, but a date has not been scheduled.

The fifth defendant, Henry “Bud” Jones III, 23, is scheduled for a January trial.

[ Reporter Jason Geary can be reached at jason.geary@theledger.com or 863-802-7536. ]

For Reyka's family, justice is a matter of time and hope

By JOHN LANTIGUA john_lantigua@pbpost.com
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 09, 2008

POMPANO BEACH — Sometimes you just have to wait for justice.

Leads in the killing of Broward Sheriff's Sergeant Chris Reyka - over 3,000 of them in the past year - have led many places, but not to his murderers.

Today marks one year since the 51-year-old father of four, who lived in Wellington, was ambushed and shot five times by an unknown assassin.

Shortly after 1 a.m. that day, Reyka approached what he considered two suspicious vehicles in the dusky parking lot of the Walgreens drug store on Pompano Parkway. His killer apparently emerged from one of the cars, firing before Reyka could draw his gun.

A surveillance camera captured a grainy image of a white, American-made sedan leaving the scene. A witness apparently gave a vague description of the gunman. The sheriff at the time, Ken Jenne, said justice would be done.

"We're at war," Jenne said. "We'll get you. We'll find you."

But even that first day, Jenne expressed doubts that justice would come quickly.

"The reality is, this is a tough one," he said. "It's not a very detailed car description and not a very detailed suspect description. Whether it takes a day, a week, a month or a decade, we will find the thugs responsible."

Subhead around here

It has been a frustrating, painful year for Reyka's sheriff's office colleagues and other South Florida law enforcement officers, who are anxious to avenge his death.

Current Sheriff Al Lamberti, who took over after Jenne resigned in September due to unrelated corruption charges, recently posted his thoughts on the BSO Web site in a statement to the public.

"The person or persons responsible for this heinous crime have not been brought to justice," Lamberti wrote. "Our agency is committed to solving Sgt. Reyka's homicide, but we need your help. We are certain that someone somewhere knows who perpetrated this crime. Our agency will never stop working to solve Sgt. Reyka's murder."

He reminded the public that a $267,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the arrest of the killers.

Reyka's family has also lived not only with the tragedy but the frustration of knowing that his murderers are still free. His widow Kim keeps up her hopes.

"I do feel very confident that the person or persons will be found," Kim said in a recent interview with The Palm Beach Post. "It's just a matter of time.

"I don't know until it happens exactly how I'll feel," she continued. "I think there is a certain amount of closure. It's like you have a puzzle and it's solved. We would know who did it, why did they do it. It doesn't bring him back, obviously. Justice will be served, which is important because they're violent people, and as time goes on, hopefully, that pain softens."

She also looks for a silver lining in the fact that the investigation has taken time.

"Since they didn't find (the killers) right away, the police have really had to work very hard and brainstorm and come up with ways to approach and investigate (and) I feel in the long run that will help somebody else," she says.

Their son, Sean, 21 and a U.S. Marine, isn't sure the person responsible will be caught, but either way the killer will pay the price, he says.

"I know the person who did this remains free, but I also believe strongly that God has a plan of some sort, and that the guy who did this will get whatever is coming to him," Sean said.

"Maybe prison or lethal injection are too good for this guy, and having to spend his life in fear and always hiding is a more just punishment," he said. "The person who did this has taken a great person from this world."

A massive manhunt started within minutes of Reyka's death and the 3,000-plus tips started pouring in almost immediately.

Later that same day, a man in a white car matching the description of the murder vehicle led law enforcement agents on a 100 mph chase on I-95. The car was caught, but the driver was cleared of the murder.

Two Greyhound buses were stopped that day far north of Pompano - one in St. Cloud and the other in Fort Pierce - but no fugitives were found aboard.

A white car was set ablaze in Hollywood within 24 hours of the shooting, drawing law enforcement attention, but it wasn't the right vehicle. Investigators are still looking for the car, which they say resembles a Mercury Grand Marquis or a Ford Crown Victoria.

The license tag on the murder car - F16 8UJ - had been stolen from an Oakland Park plumbing firm and that apparently led nowhere.

National TV coverage no help

In December, deputies arrested three men whom they charged with robbing a series of all-night pharmacies. A relative of one of those suspects told investigators that those men had thrown several handguns into a canal just east of I-95 at West Atlantic Boulevard a short distance from the scene of the Reyka murder.

According to law enforcement sources, sheriff's divers brought several guns out of the canal. None had killed Reyka. But the three robbery suspects — Timothy Johnson, 34, Gerald Joshua, 28 and Deitrich Johnson, 22 — are still being held. Police refuse to say whether they are suspects or "people of interest" in the Reyka killing.

Divers also searched Esquire Lake, less than 2 miles from the murder site, but apparently didn't find the murder weapon.

The case was covered on the television show America's Most Wanted, but no one came forward with information to solve the crime.

One disappearance was solved as a result of the investigation, although it had nothing to do with the Reyka case.

The search for the white car led police to a stretch of the Hillsboro Canal in northern Broward County, where on Dec. 4 they found a sunken Mercedes-Benz and in it the body of Barry Fish, who had disappeared 15 years ago shortly after leaving his parents' house in Boca Raton. He had apparently driven into the canal and drowned.

His family achieved some closure. The Reykas are still waiting.

New evidence: Could it stop Lake County execution?

Stephen Hudak Sentinel Staff Writer
August 9, 2008

Lawyers for condemned killer Richard Henyard, bidding to stop his Sept. 23 execution, claimed Friday that they have new evidence that he didn't fire the shots that killed two Lake County children in 1993.

The new evidence is a sworn statement from another convicted Lake County killer, Jason Nawara, once a jail podmate of Henyard's accomplice, Alfonza Smalls.

In a handwritten affidavit, Nawara, serving 50 years for the rape and murder of his 10-year-old stepsister, said Smalls often boasted to other juvenile inmates, "I'm a killa, you just a car thief."

Smalls, not eligible for the death penalty because of his youth, is serving a life sentence in the carjacking, rape and attempted first-degree murder of Dorothy Lewis and the murders of Lewis' daughters, Jamilya, 7, and Jasmine, 3. Henyard was sentenced to death for the crimes.

Henyard's appellate lawyers cited Nawara's affidavit in a request for an evidentiary hearing that could put off the execution. But Assistant State Attorney Bill Gross said Nawara's claim would not diminish Henyard's role in "an atrocious crime" that he plotted, committed and bragged about. Circuit Judge Mark Hill said he would rule next week.

Husband pleads not guilty in stabbing death

A Waukegan man accused of killing his wife in a Lincolnshire parking lot pleaded not guilty Thursday in Lake County circuit court.

Clarence Weber Jr., 58, could face the death penalty if convicted of the July 5 murder of Adelina Weber, 31.

Police said Weber met his estranged wife after her shift at the Walker Bros. Original Pancake House to discuss the divorce she had filed for June 30.

An argument broke out, police said, and Weber stabbed his wife once in the chest.

The woman ran into the lobby of a nearby hotel, collapsed and died.

Weber fled the state but was captured near Crown Point, Ind., three days after the slaying.

Weber served seven years of a 19-year prison term in Florida for a pair of attacks on the woman he was married to in 1989.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Bolling Haxall said Weber is also a suspect in the May 7 fire that destroyed his home in Waukegan, but he has not been charged in that case.

Haxall said Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller has 120 days to decide if he will seek the death penalty in the murder case. He said Weber is eligible for capital punishment because his wife had an order of protection against him at the time of her death.

Associate Judge Christopher Stride scheduled a pretrial hearing for Sept. 12.

Weber is held without bond in the Lake County jail.

2 accused killers make court appearances

By David Angier / News Herald Writer dangier@pcnh.com
August 7, 2008 - 11:29PM

PANAMA CITY — Jose A. Gonzalez had his first appearance Thursday in juvenile court on a charge of murder.

Gonzalez, 16, is accused of stabbing to death Timothy Roy Humphries, 49, Saturday night near the 1400 block of Lisenby Avenue. He and an accused accomplice, Jose Luis Rios Robledo, 27, were arrested in Orlando on Monday.

Gonzalez can be held in juvenile detention for 21 days to allow prosecutors time to decide what to do with his case. If they decide to seek a first-degree murder charge, they will bring his case before the grand jury for an indictment.

If Gonzalez is indicted, he automatically is waived up to adult court. If prosecutors decide to charge him with a different level of murder and seek to try him as adult, they'll have to make a request through the court and argue their reasons at a hearing.

Deputy Public Defender Walter Smith, Gonzalez's likely attorney because he handles nearly all indigent murder defendants in the circuit, said he does not believe this is a first-degree murder case. Smith said the information he's getting is the stabbing was the result of a fight.

Even if the state gets a first-degree murder indictment, Smith said, it probably cannot seek the death penalty because of Gonzalez's age. Smith said he believes the Florida Supreme Court has made it unlawful to execute convicted murders younger than 17.

Another of Smith's clients, Matthew Caylor, was arraigned in Circuit Judge Dedee Costello's court on Thursday. Caylor, 33, of Auburn, Ga., is charged with first-degree murder, sexual battery with great bodily force and aggravated child abuse. He's accused of raping and killing 13-year-old Melinda Denise Hinson on July 8 at the Valu-Lodge motel in Panama City.

Prosecutors already have declared their intent to seek the death penalty against Caylor.

Thursday's arraignment was to allow a formal reading of the charges against him and the submission of Caylor's written plea of not guilty. He was scheduled for another pretrial hearing in September, but no trial date was set.

Thrown away by the system

Views in brief
August 8, 2008


REGARDING THE story on life without the possibility of parole ("Living in hell for life"): I would also like to say that even if an inmate is parole eligible, the chances here in Florida, and in many other states, are basically slim-to-none that they'll actually ever get paroled.

My husband for example, was given a 25-to-life sentence for being a witness to a murder. This was back in 1983 and he was only 17 years old.

After 25 years, he had his first parole hearing. The parole commissioners make their decisions well in advance of the hearing. They only look at the ancient crime and anything negative, no matter how minor (smoking in a non-smoking area in 1998, for example). They never look at the positive accomplishments that the inmate has made, the support from loved ones or friends, or release plans.

So no matter what is said in support of an inmate, the parole commission will always find reasons to keep the inmate in prison.

I was told by a commissioner during a private meeting the day before my husband's hearing that because my husband has made so many accomplishments, that "it would be best to keep him in prison just a little while longer so he could help to rehabilitate other inmates."

Afterward, I met with another commissioner. This one said "life means life!"

The end result? They gave my husband a presumptive parole release date of 2100! This, for a crime that he never committed!

This is one of thousands of horror stories that goes on here in Florida. Furthermore, these inmates are supposed to have their parole hearings every two years (except for the extreme cases). Instead, they are being given five-year set offs across the board.

Why is the parole commission doing this? The answer is simple. To keep their high-paying jobs--not to protect "public safety" as they want the public to believe.

It's gotten so bad here, that we even have a prison for the elderly! What harm can these inmates do?

The parole commission is only paroling 1 percent per year. Obviously this is to show that they are releasing some inmates. So even if the inmate is parole eligible, it still means a life sentence for most.
Grace Dark Horse, Davie, Fla.

Teen car-theft suspect killed by deputy

Ruben Charles Debrosse

The Associated Press
August 3, 2008

ROYAL PALM BEACH - Authorities say a Palm Beach County deputy sheriff shot and killed a 17-year-old car-theft suspect who drove toward him at a high speed in a parking lot.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said the deputy had spotted the stolen car in Royal Palm Beach before dawn Saturday. He tried to stop the car in a movie theater's parking lot.

But Barbera said that as the deputy got out of his vehicle, the suspect backed up toward him at high speed and ignored requests to stop and surrender. He hit the deputy's patrol car.

The officer feared for his life and then shot the suspect, who was pronounced dead at a hospital. He was identified as Ruben Charles Debrosse of West Palm Beach.



The deputy was not identified.

Florida teens ordered held on no bail in party death

Michael John Mendola

Simon Mihailovic

The Associated Press

SARASOTA

A Sarasota judge says two teenagers must stay in jail while facing charges they murdered an 18-year-old high school student during a brawl outside an underage drinking party.

Attorneys for Simon Mihailovic and Michael John Mendola, both 17, unsuccessfully argued that the Riverview High School students should be given a bond because they were not a flight risk.

County Judge David Denkin rejected that Saturday.

Prosecutors told the judge that the teenagers had already fled once, from the scene of the early morning street brawl Tuesday that left Sarasota High School student Gregory Kennedy dead.

The medical examiner determined the death was caused by any one of three blows to Kennedy's head.

Two men indicted in death of Rachel Hoffman; Meggs says he will 'probably' seek death

By Nic Corbett
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Two men were indicted Friday in connection with the death of Tallahassee police informant Rachel Hoffman.

Andrea Green, 25, of Perry, and Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, of Tallahassee, were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery with a gun and possession of a gun by a convicted felon.

Hoffman, 23, was shot to death in May while working as an informant for the Tallahassee Police Department.

State Attorney Willie Meggs said he will "probably" seek the death penalty.

"We'll make the decision some other time, but probably," Meggs said.

The trial will likely take place a year to 18 months from now, he said.

Hoffman was to buy drugs and a gun from the men with $13,000 in recorded bills at Forestmeadows Park. Police lost track of Hoffman, and she and the men disappeared. Police later found spent shell casings and one of Hoffman's flip-flops on Gardner Road, a short drive from Forestmeadows.

Green and Bradshaw, who were later arrested in Orlando, led investigators to Hoffman's body in rural Taylor County, police said.

Green's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber, did not return a call for comment. Bradshaw's attorney, Gregory Cummings, said he had no comment.

The indictments came after three days of testimony from witnesses, including Tallahassee Police Department officers, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement case agent and Perry residents.

Woman who was once on death row

By JAY STAPLETON
STAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH -- The last local woman to sit on Florida's death row was sentenced to life in prison today, after prosecutors said they were removing an intent to seek the death penalty for Virginia Larzelere.

Larzelere Larzelere, 55, was convicted in 1992 of being the mastermind behind the slaying a year earlier of her dentist husband in his Edgewater office. She was sentenced to die. Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a ruling that found Larzelere should get a new sentencing because her attorneys were ineffective.

Larzelere smiled today when she walked into Circuit Judge Joseph Will's courtroom. An attorney she has hired, Thomas Mott, said later he was exploring renewed efforts to prove her innocence.

Under the terms of her new sentence, Larzelere will be eligible for parole in 8 years.

Fla. panel criticizes police in informant's death

The Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Police negligence contributed to the killing of a drug informant, a grand jury said Friday. The panel also indicted two men on first-degree murder charges in the case.

Rachel Hoffman, 23, was fatally shot while helping Tallahassee police with a narcotics investigation in May.

The grand jury recommended that police change their policies and procedures on the use of informants and take disciplinary action against officers who participated in the case.

Andrea Green, 25, and Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, are charged with murdering the woman. They were arrested shortly after the killing.

State Attorney Willie Meggs told the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper that he probably would seek the death penalty.

Police had given Hoffman money and instructions to buy a gun and drugs from the pair but she vanished. Her body was found two days later in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee.

In response to the grand jury report, city officials said in a statement that police already have taken some of the steps the panel recommended, including the temporary suspension of using informants in narcotics operations.

The grand jury also criticized the federal Drug Enforcement Agency for refusing to let its agents testify in the case.

Mark Trouville, who heads DEA's Miami office, said in a statement that agents were not allowed to testify because state prosecutors failed to issue subpoenas and summarize the information they were seeking.

Attempts to reach the defendants' lawyers after hours were unsuccessful. One did not immediately return a message and the other's office phone did not take messages.

State to seek death penalty in Caylor case

PANAMA CITY — The State Attorney's Office filed notice Monday of its intention to seek the death penalty against Matthew Caylor, the man accused of raping and killing a 13-year-old girl at a Panama City motel.

Caylor, 33, of Auburn, Ga., was indicted last week in the July 8 death of Melinda Denise Hinson at the Valu-Lodge motel. The indictment charged him with first-degree premeditated and felony murder, plus sexual battery with great bodily force and aggravated child abuse.

Hinson's family had been staying at the motel for a few weeks, having moved to the area last year from Henderson, Ky. Melinda went missing the evening of July 8 as she was walking to a nearby room to walk the neighbor's dog.

Her body was found July 10 under the bed in a room in the motel.

State Attorney Steve Meadows signed the notice, saying the state would rely on three aggravators to try to gain the death sentence: that Caylor was a convicted felon and under sentence of imprisonment or probation at the time of the killing; that he killed Hinson while he was committing the offense of aggravated child abuse; and the killing was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.

The state has to prove to a jury at least two of the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt to legally sustain a death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court regularly has rejected death sentences based on a single aggravating factor.

Caylor's attorney predicted two weeks ago the state would seek the death penalty in the case. The state, however, doesn't usually announce its intent so quickly in the process.

Caylor has not been arraigned on the new charges. He is scheduled to appear before a judge Aug. 21 for a formal reading of his charges and the beginning of the discovery process.

State Attorney's Office spokesman Joe Grammer said Caylor's case made it into a pre-planned death penalty committee meeting last week.

"If we hadn't had that meeting planned, we wouldn't have done (Caylor's case) that fast," Grammer said. "The other two cases we dealt with were much older."

By David Angier dangier@pcnh.com

Death row prisoners reaching out via the Internet

Scott and Laci Peterson

Coalition creates Web pages for convicts to use
By Tim Reiterman, Los Angeles Times July 28, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - From the steely confines of San Quentin Prison's death row, scores of California's most notorious convicts are reaching out to the free world via the Internet.

Scott Peterson's Web page features smiling photos of himself with his wife, Laci, whom he was found guilty of murdering and dumping into San Francisco Bay while she was pregnant with their son. It also links viewers to his family's support site, where Peterson has a recent blog posting on his "wrongful conviction."

Randy Kraft, a condemned Orange County slayer of 16 young men, is looking for pen pals. So is convicted Northern California serial killer Charles Ng, who describes himself as shy and offers to sell his wildlife drawings.

Prisoners are barred from direct computer access that officials say could allow them to threaten witnesses or orchestrate crimes. But thanks to supporters and commercial services, many of the state's 673 condemned inmates have pen-pal postings and personalized Web pages with writing, artwork, and photos of themselves, often accompanied by declarations of innocence and pleas for friendship and funds.

Although some inmates use sites in the United States, the nonprofit Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has created Web pages or pen-pal ads for more than 100 California death-row inmates. The site, unlike some others, is free.

Since the mid-1990s, when a condemned inmate's column called "Deadman Talkin' " appeared online, use of the Internet by prisoners has proliferated in California and elsewhere.

Civil libertarians applaud the development as the exercise of free speech by isolated people, but victims' rights activists decry it as an unnecessary affront to loved ones of those whose suffering led society to lock up prisoners.

"It's hurtful," said Christine Ward, director of the Crime Victims Action Alliance. "They are seeing a [convicted] person going on with their life, but the person they raised or married or knew does not get that opportunity. . . . That murdered person is not coming back."

Elizabeth Alexander, director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said survivors simply should steer clear of websites that would be painful to see. "It does not seem that you can design a limit on the First Amendment based on an expectation that victims will seek out something that gives them more pain," she said.

After the widow of an Arizona murder victim became outraged by the killer's online ad, that state's legislators passed a law banning inmates from the Internet even through outside contacts. In 2003, a judge declared it unconstitutional.

A year earlier, a judge had barred California prison officials from enforcing a rule prohibiting inmates from receiving materials printed from the Internet - a measure officials said was partly to prevent encoded messages.

Missouri adopted a rule in 2007, similar to one in Florida, prohibiting inmates from soliciting pen pals on the Internet, saying that several had been scamming their new friends. Prison spokesman Brian Hauswirth said many solicitations were misleading, and one female prisoner received $10,000 each from several men who thought she loved them.

Randall Berg, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute who plans to challenge the Sunshine State's pen-pal solicitation ban, said such rules violate free speech and reduce the odds that prisoners will be able to stay out of prison.

"They can't use a pen pal [anymore] to help find employment or a place to live," he said.

Writing to outsiders is beneficial even for death-row inmates with slim prospects for freedom because "idleness is the devil's workshop," Berg said.

Bailiffs Pull Quadruple Murder Defendant From Courtroom

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. -- A long-delayed murder trial of a man accused of killing three men and a woman in a house near Orange Park had barely started Monday when the defendant began making outbursts, threatening to fire his lawyers and -- as he was physically removed from the courtroom -- telling to arrest the judge "for illegal activities."

Prosecutors said Gary McCray shot and killed four people on May 23, 2004 in a house known for illegal drug activity.

More than four years ago, Clay County deputies investigating reports of shots being fired found Phillip Perrotta, 53, John Whitehead, 37, John Oliver Ellis, Jr., 51, and Robin Selkirk, 45, dead of gunshot wounds.

Investigators said they were each shot with a high-powered semi-automatic, two of them as they were running away.

Clay County deputies said McCray apparently knew his victims and the house was known for drug activity. The house has since been destroyed.

Authorities said it was one of the worst crimes ever committed in Clay County.

Several days after the slayings, McCray was arrested in a motel near Tallahassee and held on drug charges while prosecutors built their homicide case against him.

In February 2006, Judge Frederic Buttner found McCray not competent to stand trial and sent him to a Florida State Hospital for treatment. Late that year, after hearing the recommendation of doctors at the mental hospital, Buttner ruled McCray was able to assist in his own defense.

As a jury was being seated on Monday, McCray became argumentative, told his lawyer to be quiet and began lecturing trial Judge William A. Wilkes about his rights.

"I am the head of the defense. I can defend myself if I feel like it," McCray told Wilkes. "I haven't fired (my lawyers) yet, but they are close to being fired."

When McCray refused to take some time and talk with his lawyers, Wilkes cut him off.

"Take him out. I've had enough," Wilkes said.

The State Attorney's Office said they intend to seek a death penalty if McCray is convicted.

Jury Recommends Death for Ballard

By Jason Geary
THE LEDGER


Published: Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 2:21 p.m.


BARTOW A jury has recommended that convicted murderer Roy Phillip Ballard be executed for killing his stepdaughter, Autumn Marie Traub.

Under Florida law, Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen must give the jury’s 9-3 recommendation great weight.

Traub, 33, of Lakeland, disappeared Sept. 13., 2006, after meeting with Ballard. Her body has never been found.

Jurors found Ballard, 67, guilty earlier this month of first-degree murder.

At a hearing in late August, the defense will have an opportunity to provide more legal arguments about why Ballard should be sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty. Jacobsen will then set a sentencing date.

Local attorneys disciplined by Florida Bar

Ludmilla Lelis

Sentinel Staff Writer

3:30 PM EDT, July 29, 2008

Orlando attorney Steven C. Blinn was disbarred and Port Orange attorney Jeffrey Louis Clements was suspended, according to the disciplinary notice released today by the Florida Bar.

They were among 22 attorneys facing disciplinary action by the Florida Supreme Court, following investigations by the bar.

Blinn, who first became an attorney in 1986, has been disbarred for five years, for using client funds for personal use, according to the notice. He had already been suspended following an arrest on grand theft and cocaine charges.

Clements is suspended from practice until early October and then will be placed on probation for a year, during which he must attend an ethics class. The bar investigation found that in ten cases, he failed to take actions to represent his clients, including abandoning a woman who hired him for a civil lawsuit and failing to properly file a bankruptcy.

To gain freedom, man pleads guilty to crime he swears he didn't commit

Thelma Royston, with her husband, Larry, was killed June 7, 1989. Larry Royston was charged but killed himself.

By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer azayas@sptimes.com

Published Wednesday, July 30, 2008 10:49 PM


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

TAMPA — Michael Mordenti always swore he didn't do it.

That he didn't shoot and stab 54-year-old Thelma Royston in her Odessa horse barn in 1989. That he didn't accept $17,000 from her husband, Larry Royston, to do the deed. That he was innocent, even after two juries convicted him of murder and he spent 17 years in prison.

But late last week, as prosecutors and Mordenti headed into a new trial following an appeal, he agreed to a deal: plead guilty, and go free.

Wednesday, the 67-year-old Mordenti boarded a plane to Alaska, to start a new life.

All along, the case had hinged on the testimony of one witness, Mordenti's ex-wife, Gail Mordenti Milligan. Under immunity, the Largo woman told authorities she had acted as the go-between in the contract killing.

Prosecutors had no physical evidence, no money trail, no eyewitnesses, no confession. But in 1991, he was sentenced to death after a jury decided he was guilty of first-degree murder.

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a retrial, ruling that the prosecution had withheld important evidence. A second jury in 2005 heard Mordenti's case but could not come up with a unanimous decision. After the mistrial, a third jury in the same year convicted him again. This time, the penalty was life in prison, with a possibility of parole after 25 years.

But here's a piece of evidence none of those three juries heard:

Before he committed suicide, the victim's husband, Larry Royston, told his attorney that prosecutors had charged the wrong man.

This February, an appellate panel overturned his second conviction, saying a jury might have exonerated Mordenti had they heard that evidence. A fourth trial was scheduled for August.

But both sides were tired.

The victim's daughter said she didn't want to endure another trial. Mordenti told his lawyer he didn't think he could survive another conviction.

Last week, Mordenti weighed this offer: plead guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, which carry a 25-year sentence and concurrent life sentence. With the 17 years credit time he had served, he would have already completed his sentence.

Mordenti's attorney, Martin McClain, recalls his client's conundrum: stay in jail, "maintaining your innocence and fighting to clear your name, in a system that hasn't listened," or say, "Just let me out."

He said Mordenti hesitated. "He really wanted to clear his name." Then he entered the plea, and on Friday, was released as a convicted murderer.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said Wednesday that Mordenti's plea option allowed him to enter a guilty plea "in his best interest." So in the end, Bondi said, "He never said he did it."

One woman in court Friday had never spoken to Mordenti but came to show support.

Susanna Burleigh, a 34-year-old mother of two, was the hung juror in his second trial. She didn't believe Mordenti's ex-wife.

"She had lied in so many other situations," Burleigh said. "I just didn't see how we could send this man to jail."

Others agreed, but didn't speak out, she said. She never budged. After the mistrial, Burleigh called Mordenti's attorney. "I'm sorry," she recalled telling him. "I tried."

McClain later asked her to help him prepare for the next trial, and she kept tabs on the case. So did attorney John Trevena, who represented Larry Royston when the husband told him Mordenti wasn't the killer.

"It's unfortunate that they compelled an innocent man to plea to the charge just to obtain his freedom and save face," Trevena said Wednesday. "But clearly, that man was innocent based on a lack of evidence."

The victim's daughter, Sherri L. Loeffelholz, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Mordenti walked out of the Orient Road Jail on Friday evening, at dinner time. A handful of people awaited him, including his attorney, his daughter and old friends from his used car dealership. They went to Maggiano's Little Italy in Westshore Plaza for some pasta.

Mordenti marvelled at Blackberries and cell phones, things he'd only seen on television. He talked of moving to Big Lake, Alaska, where he has friends.

And he ate, McClain said. "He just ate and ate."

Times staff writers Colleen Jenkins and Erin Sullivan contributed to this report.

Panel Votes to Deny Tax Funding For Inmate Health Care Coverage

By Robin Williams Adams
THE LEDGER


Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 1:51 a.m.


BARTOW None of Polk County's half-cent indigent sales tax should be spent on health care for jail inmates, even if they were in the plan before going to jail, members of the Citizens HealthCare Oversight Committee voted last week.

They didn't consider it right to divert money that way when finances were good. And it's just as bad an idea now that the troubled economy has tax revenues shrinking, COC members told Assistant County Manager Lea Ann Thomas.

"I don't believe in supporting inmate care," said Connie Kinnick. "That's not what I campaigned for the half-cent sales tax money (to do)."

Paying health costs for existing plan members while they are in jail was a compromise proposal on Thomas' part, instead of suggesting all prison inmate expenses be shifted to the tax, as some county officials have mentioned in previous years.

The proposal she brought would have cost about $197,000, based on the plan's former eligibility income guidelines, and less now that those guidelines have shrunk to reflect the tight financial situation. The committee voted, 7-1, against the proposal Friday.

The county's general fund is facing a $27 million deficit, Thomas said.

Committee members were sympathetic, but, except for Brian Hinton, unmoved.

"We can't take care of all the (working) indigents who are trying to make it," member Misilene Fulse said.

Even Hinton, the only one voting to pay for the care of jailed plan members, had reservations. He said he fears that would lead to the county trying to get people enrolled in the plan after they were in jail.

That would happen, Dr. Ralph Nobo Jr. said, reminding other members that the committee has always strongly opposed that move.

"This is to help those who need us the most, like the taxpayers voted for," Nobo said.

Although Polk County commissioners have the final authority and "don't have to answer to us," Nobo said, they "have to answer to the people who elected them."

[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.theledger.com. ]