A Pinellas County jury found former Clearwater foster mother Tenesia Brown not guilty this week of first-degree murder charges. Brown was accused of killing 3-year-old Lazon Gully, who died in 2008 after being in a vegetative state for over than two years. Prosecutors argued that Lazon died of shaken-baby syndrome.

Brown and her husband Marcus fostered Lazon and his older brother back in 2005 and 2006. They had custody of the boys for about four months while their mother completed drug treatment. On the afternoon of March 3, 2006, Tenesia Brown picked up 14-month-old Lazon from day care, after workers called to tell her that he was vomiting and had diarrhea. When Brown got him home, he stopped breathing.

Brown was initially charged with assault but the charges were upgraded after Lazon died in 2008.

There were no witnesses to any physical abuse but prosecutors argued that circumstantial and medical evidence showed Brown had caused catastrophic brain injuries to Lazon. They said Lazon suffered all the classic symptoms of shaken baby syndrome. (more…)

A Hillsborough County jury took about three hours last week to acquit Tyrone Jackson of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery. The charges related to the February shooting of Miezan Etti at a birthday party in Seminole Heights.

Jackson admitted shooting Etti but claimed he was acting in self-defense, that he was shot at first.

The trial judge had earlier directed a judgment of acquittal for Jackson’s wife, Veeandrea. In making that decision, the judge granted a defense motion for acquittal at the close of evidence. The defense argued that prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to let a jury consider her case. The judge clearly agreed. (more…)

Sean Adam Strobel was extradited to the Land O’Lakes jail from Massachusetts last week and charged with attempted murder. Back on July 19, according to investigators, Strobel and another man drove with Nicholas Heath along a secluded stretch of Strauber Memorial Highway in Pasco County. Heath had given Strobel $750 for roxycodone painkillers, and the men were on their way to pick the drugs.

Strobel stopped on the side of the road though and the unidentified passenger hit Heath with a pair of brass knuckles. According to the police report, Strobel then fired a handgun at Heath several times as Heath tried to escape. Heath was hit in the front abdomen and back.

Heath told a Pasco County detective that he “played dead” as Strobel stood over him and called 911 from cell phone after Strobel drove away.

Strobel was arrested on July 27 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He is apparently from that area. He waived his right to an extradition hearing and arrived back in Florida to face charges late last week. (more…)

Tampa’s highest-profile murder defendant in quite some time now faces four charges of murder in three separate incidents. Dontae Rashawn Morris is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Tampa police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab earlier this month.

Morris has also been charged with the May 18th killing of Derek Anderson at an east Tampa apartment complex, in what authorities suggest was a failed robbery.  Most recently, Morris was charged with killing Harold Wright on June 8th in what was apparently a drug-related shooting.

Curtis and Kocab were both shot in the head after Curtis pulled over a car in which Morris was a passenger. After discovering an active arrest warrant for Morris, Curtis called for backup and Kocab arrived. A dashboard video recorder in one of the officers’ cruisers allegedly captured the shootings, according to an arrest affidavit. (more…)

The Florida Supreme Court recently overturned the double death sentences imposed on a Tampa man in the murders of his wife and stepdaughter. The court unanimously vacated the two murder convictions of Khalid Ali Pasha and returned the case to Hillsborough County for retrial.

In their opinion, the justices indicated that the trial judge in Hillsborough County should have allowed Pasha fire his court-appointed attorney and represent himself. Jurors convicted Pasha of the August 23, 2002, stabbing deaths of his wife Robin Canady and her daughter Ranesha Singleton.

“Pasha clearly expressed a desire to proceed pro se (represent himself) in order to avoid the proceedings with counsel he found to be unacceptable,” the court wrote in its eight-page ruling. “This error of the trial court requires reversal.” (more…)

Three people have been arrested and charged in relation to a weekend stabbing and carjacking in Hernando County, Florida. A day after the attack, deputies arrested Sherrie Dicus, Steven Wesolek and Sabrina Dicus. They are currently in custody.

Enrique Daniel Acevedo and his girlfriend, Skyler Nicholle Collins, both 18, drove to Emerson Road south of Brooksville Sunday to pick up Wesolek, who was Collins’ ex-boyfriend, and some of his friends, according to law enforcement. After the suspects got into Collins’ car, Wesolek allegedly stabbed Acevedo twice in the back of the neck and Sherrie Dicus (mother of Sabrina Dicus) strangled Collins with some sort of ligature until she lost consciousness. (more…)

The State of Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted killer, last night shortly after midnight local time.  Gardner’s execution received substantial national attention because it was carried out by a firing squad. It was the first time in at least 14 years that an American inmate was executed by a firing squad.

After the U.S. Supreme Court, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Utah’s governor all denied last-minute request for reprieve, Gardner was strapped into a chair, had a target pinned over his heart and was fired on by five anonymous marksmen armed with .30-caliber rifles and firing from behind a ported wall.

Gardner was only the third man killed by firing squad in the U.S. since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reinstated capital punishment in 1976.  (Utah was actually the site of the first execution after the 1976 reinstatement when Gary Gilmore died by firing squad in 1977.) Utah amended its death penalty law in 2004 making lethal injection the default method of execution. However, nine inmates remained on death row in Utah, convicted prior to the 2004 amendment. Those nine inmates, a number which included Gardner, could still legally choose execution by firing squad instead of lethal injection. (more…)

Amanda Logue of Leesburg, Georgia was extradited from that state to Florida this week. She now faces a first-degree murder charge in Pasco County for allegedly killing a Hudson tattoo shop owner.

Logue is being held at the Land O’ Lakes Jail without bail. She was arrested in Georgia on May 28.

According to Pasco County sheriff’s detectives, Logue bludgeoned and stabbed Dennis “Scooter” Abrahamsen to death last month. They say that Logue is a prostitute who participated in a sex party at Abrahamsen’s home in New Port Richey on May 15.

Abrahamsen’s body was found face down on a massage table at his home the next day. His skull was caved in and he had been been stabbed in the back. About $6, 000, a laptop computer, a video camera, a digital camera and a Home Depot credit card were missing from his home. (more…)

Earlier this week, a Pinellas County jury found Richard Robards guilty of first-degree murder in the 2006 deaths of Clearwater residents Frank and Linda DeLuca. The prosecution sought the death penalty and, after a separate hearing, the jury did recommend the death penalty.

Robards is a former bodybuilder who was the DeLucas’ personal trainer. According to prosecutors, Robards killed them because he wanted to steal their safe, which contained $80,000. They claimed Robards stabbed the couple to death and set fire to their home in August 2006 to cover up the evidence. Investigators found Robards’ DNA under Frank DeLuca’s fingernails and his fingerprint on a newspaper that survived the fire. (more…)

Prosecutors in Hillsborough County offered Ronny Walker a plea deal which would have landed him in prison for five years, in exchange for a guilty plea to manslaughtercharges. Walker turned the offer down at least twice.

Last week, Walker was convicted by a jury of manslaughter, burglary and robbery with a firearm in connection with the 2003 shooting death of Elaine Caldwell in Tampa. He now faces a possible life sentence.

According to authorities, Walker entered Caldwell’s home on October 23, 2003 with a gun. He first approached Caldwell’s boyfriend, Raymond Lee, who was in the den with Caldwell’s 9-year-old granddaughter. Walker allegedly took money from Lee’s pocket and demanded more. Walker then took Lee and the child to Caldwell’s room, where she was perming her hair.

Caldwell screamed when she saw Walker’s gun. He told her to stop screaming. When she continued to scream, Walker shot her in the head. (more…)