Prosecutor delays decision on cases of 5 other guards

STARKE -- After losing a murder case in the fatal stomping of a death row inmate, State Attorney Bill Cervone said Tuesday no decision will be made before next month on how to handle the prosecution of five other guards.

A jury in Bradford County acquitted three guards Friday of murder charges in the July 17, 1999, death of Frank Valdes at Florida State Prison.

Capt. Timothy Thornton, 36, and Sgts. Charles Brown and Jason Griffis, both 28, were found innocent of second-degree murder by a jury of five men and a woman.

Cervone, who gave the three trial prosecutors and an investigator the rest of the month off to rest, said he would meet with them and representatives of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Department of Corrections before deciding on how to proceed with the remaining cases.

If prosecutors take the cases to trial, they will again face the daunting prospect of choosing juries in Bradford County, where Corrections is the largest employer.

Attorneys spent three months and went through about a third of the county's jury pool of 10,000 licensed drivers before picking a six-person jury for the recent trial.

Defense attorneys, Cervone said, will have somewhat of an advantage in any future trial because they have heard the state's evidence.

The defense team in the trial just concluded said Valdes' death could have been caused by some of the guards who will be tried later. Cervone expects the same tactic in a subsequent trial. "These guys will blame those guys." The verdict Friday was the second loss by the prosecution.

In October 2000, former guard Montrez Lucas was cleared of aggravated battery, malicious battery on an inmate and coercion to falsify reports. Lucas was accused of beating Valdes the day before the inmate died.

Lucas was later charged with second-degree murder in the case along with Andrew Lewis, Donald Stanford and Dewey Beck.

The four former guards, along with former corrections officer Robert Sauls, also are charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, felony battery on an inmate and official misconduct.

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