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The Sheriff's Office says the 21-year-old briefly joined friends to settle a grudge, and with one blow to the head, ended the life of the Sickles High School senior.
By AMY HERDY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2002
TAMPA -- Alan Thompson was stocking shelves overnight at a Kash n' Karry, authorities say, when two friends arrived with a gray Honda and a grudge.
They wanted his help with some payback. A few minutes earlier at a nearby Steak n Shake, a teenager had challenged them with a taunt: "What are you looking at?"
Thompson and a co-worker threw down their aprons, left the store and climbed into the Honda. A surveillance camera recorded the time as 3:48 a.m.
The four young men drove 1 1/2 miles to the parking lot of the Citrus Park Steak n Shake, investigators say, where a crowd of teenagers were hanging out.
Thompson, 21, unfolded his 6-foot-5, 190-pound frame from the rear of the Honda, punched 18-year-old Christopher Fannan once in the temple, then fled with his friends back to the grocery store, said Hillsborough sheriff's Chief Deputy David Gee.
A surveillance camera recorded the time as 4:01 a.m.
Only 13 minutes had passed.
Fannan, who had not taken part in the initial exchange, was eating sunflower seeds and never said a word, Gee said. The Sickles High School senior lost consciousness, fell to the ground and was pronounced dead later that day, May 19, at St. Joseph's Hospital.
On Friday afternoon, sheriff's investigators arrested Thompson and charged him with second-degree murder.
Although Thompson said he was working when Fannan was killed, Gee said the surveillance tapes show him leaving and returning to the store about the time the fatal punch was thrown.
The three other men involved in the fight have been identified but are not in custody. Gee said they are cooperating with authorities. A 1993 gray Honda was recovered in the Odessa area and impounded.
As authorities outlined the case during a news conference Friday, Fannan's mother, Cyndi Fannan, stood nearby, tightly gripping her husband's hand with both of her own.
Later, Mrs. Fannan said she was grateful the Sheriff's Office had found the men authorities say were responsible for Christopher's death.
"They all had the intention to do harm," she said, "and it happened to be my son."
Of Thompson, she said, "I would just like to meet him and say, why?"
While being escorted by deputies into the Sheriff's Office, Thompson, wearing a backwards red baseball cap and a heavy scowl, cursed at reporters.
"I didn't do a . . . thing," he said when asked whether he meant to kill Fannan.
Gee said Thompson, who graduated from Sickles High in 1999, did not appear to know Fannan.
"Apparently, someone in the crowd who stood near Christopher made the remark," Gee said.
Records show that Thompson, whose nickname is "Lil Ghost," was arrested Feb. 14 on charges of uttering a forged instrument and fraudulent use of a credit card. Those cases are ongoing.
He was arrested last year for possession and distribution of marijuana. The disposition of those cases could not be determined late Friday.
Jeff Johnson, a manager at the Kash n' Karry store on Lynn Turner and Ehrlich roads where Thompson worked, said Thompson was still an employee of the store.
A woman who identified herself as Thompson's mother declined to comment when reached at her Pinnacle of Carrollwood apartment off Lynn Turner Road.
Gee said a witness at the Steak n Shake identified Thompson shortly after the incident, but Gee said the young man had what at first appeared to be an iron-clad alibi: He was working.
On closer scrutiny, Gee said, "The alibi began to fall apart."
Although Thompson and his friend did not clock out when they left the Kash n' Karry, the store's cameras caught them leaving and returning 13 minutes later, Gee said.
That was long enough to have committed the crime, he said.
Mrs. Fannan said she will never recover from the loss of her son. Nor, she said, would Thompson's mother.
"I feel sorry for his family," she said. "It's destroyed ours."
But Thompson made that decision, she said.
"He made that choice -- to throw that punch -- and he's still alive," Mrs. Fannan said. "My son is not."
Christopher Fannan's sister, who turned 8 the day after his death, was able to return to school, she said, but still has difficulty talking about her brother.
"The days are busy; the nights are bad," Mrs. Fannan said. "I keep thinking he's coming in the door."
-- Times researcher John Martin and staff writer Ryan Meehan contributed to this report. Amy Herdy can be reached at 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com.