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Police say two men, one a nephew of a man shot early Saturday, kidnapped a woman later in the day and attacked her with several items.
By RYAN MALDONADO
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 28, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- Two men were accused Saturday of kidnapping a murder witness to force her to talk to police about the crime, police said.
Carlos Henderson, 29, and Steven George, 30, are accused of forcing the woman into their car in the 1700 block of Quincy Street S about 3:30 p.m., then driving her to a home near where Jerome "Zeke" Bolden was gunned down earlier Saturday in the Childs Park neighborhood.
Henderson forced his way into the home with the woman and attacked her and a man inside with beer bottles, a wooden crutch and picture frames, police said. No one was seriously injured.
After the kidnapping, the witness told police her account of the shooting, said police Sgt. Hope Crews. Details of that account weren't available Sunday.
Bolden was shot about 2:45 a.m. in an alley less than a block away from his home at 1734 45th St. S, police said. He died before paramedics arrived.
Police have not arrested anyone in connection with the shooting and were still investigating the homicide late Sunday.
Family members said George and Henderson, who is Bolden's nephew, were wrongfully arrested in the kidnapping case.
Linda Bolden, Jerome Bolden's sister, said Henderson and George were with her all day Saturday.
She said the witness, unknown to her, came to the Bolden family Saturday saying she knew details of the shooting.
"(The witness) said she saw my brother get killed, described the car, saw when he got shot and that she could sketch (the shooter) out," Bolden said.
But she said Henderson and George did not kidnap the woman or try to force information out of her, as police allege.
Henderson faces charges of kidnapping, burglary and battery and was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail. George faces a kidnapping charge and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Members of the Bolden family say Jerome's death was a case of mistaken identity. Bolden had run-ins with the law in the mid 1990s, when he served two years in prison for selling crack cocaine and operating a drug house.
In 2000, he was sentenced to probation on charges of domestic battery and possession of marijuana. Police had a warrant for his arrest at the time of his death for violating probation. Linda Bolden said he had cleaned up his act as far as she knew.
The family has made tentative plans for a funeral Saturday, but the location is not yet known.
"My uncle, he was a good man," said Shunta Tillman, Bolden's niece. "He didn't do anything."