Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - better late then never

By Nick Dorsten, Esq.

From the Times website, a story of a delay for justice that was worth the wait...

LARGO — The sister never stopped believing the police would nab her sister's killer, not even when the investigation stretched on for a year, a decade, two decades.

On Wednesday, a jury convicted the murder suspect of first-degree murder for strangling the victim in downtown St. Petersburg in 1987, and her teary-eyed sister felt thrilled.

"It just goes to show, it doesn't matter if it's two months ago or 24 years ago, because you can get justice," the sister, 44, said after the verdict.

She has talked to her late sister every day since the trial began last week. "I've told her I'm doing the best that I can, she's not forgotten … the only thing I can do is be here and make sure that everyone knows that she was important."

The Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge sentenced the murder suspect to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the next 25 years, which were the sentencing guidelines in place at the time of his crime.

"Should you be mad it took 24 years to get here?" the Assistant State Attorney asked jurors in her closing argument Wednesday afternoon. "Absolutely. Sure, be mad. But it doesn't mean he's not guilty. … It doesn't mean he didn't rape her and he didn't choke her to death."

The murder suspect, now 50, balding and with a goatee, was tracked down in Georgia in 2008 after St. Petersburg police revived the murder from their cold case file. He hung his head but otherwise showed no emotion as the verdict was read Wednesday. Jurors took about two hours to reach their verdict.

Police had considered him a suspect from early on, but it wasn't until years later that DNA evidence allowed them to make the case against him.

The victim, 19, who was petite with strawberry-blond hair, had gone out drinking with friends on Feb. 27, 1987, in downtown St. Petersburg. She broke her wrist in a scuffle with a motorcyclist outside a convenience store. She was trying to get medical treatment when she split off from the group with a male acquaintance, the murder suspect.

She was found the next morning by a coffee shop owner who peered out a window overlooking Mills Plaza in the 200 block of Eighth Street S, and saw what appeared to be a mannequin.

The prosecutor said evidence showed the victim was raped. Her body was dirty and she had mulch in her mouth, indicating a struggle. Semen found inside her later was found to be a DNA match to the murder suspect.

After the murder suspect was initially interviewed by police, he changed his name and moved several times, the prosecutor pointed out.

But the Assistant Public Defender said it was much more logical to believe that the murder suspect and the victim had consensual sex, which would have accounted for the DNA match. When she broke her wrist, the PD said, "(He) is the one who came to her aid. … He's the one who walks her to the hospital."

When a detective interviewed the murder suspect about the crime early on, he became emotional and seemed to be saying "that's right" as the officer described how she may have been murdered. But that wasn't a confession, the criminal defense lawyer said. If it had been, he would have been arrested decades ago, he said.

Like a lot of little sisters, the victim was spunky and stubborn and good at pushing her older sister's buttons. The two fussed like sisters do. But the relationship never matured like it should have. The two never got the chance to grow older together, to meet at family reunions, to have special times over the years "where we talked about the past and we laughed instead of argued."

Murder prevented that, she said. Instead, the sister put her hopes in the justice system, visited her sister's grave regularly and told her she was not giving up.

"She would be proud of me," she said while waiting for the verdict. "I'm not all that tough a person. … I'm very emotional, I cry a lot. But she would be proud of me."

When a detective of the St. Petersburg Police Department showed up at her door in 2007 to let her know detectives had made a DNA match in the murder, she hugged him so hard "I almost knocked him off the steps," she said.

"This definitely was a very trying case and it was one of the most difficult to present, but it worked out in the end," said the detective, who is a major at the department.

On Wednesday, after the trial ended, the victim's sister said she planned to head straight to her grave. She would walk through a cemetery so familiar that she wouldn't need lights to find the right spot. She had family members all over the country to call, but they would have to wait.

Have you or someone you love been arrested for a violent crime or a criminal offense? Then call the St. Petersburg criminal defense attorneys today for a free consultation!

For more information, or to speak directly with experienced St. Petersburg criminal defense lawyers please contact BLAKE & DORSTEN, P.A. at 727.286.6141 or email the lawyers your questions at: info@blakedorstenlaw.com. We are located at 4707 140th Ave N, Suite 104 in Clearwater, across from the criminal courthouse in the airport business center, minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg.