Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
October 4, 2002
BRADENTON -- Deputies charged a man Thursday with killing a former actor and model in August as he awaited a hearing for violating probation on earlier charges.
Gary Cloud, 45, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the Aug. 3 stabbing death of Barbara Jean Laney, 67, Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said Thursday.
Deputies told the Bradenton Herald that Cloud was a suspect soon after the killing, but they wanted to compare his DNA samples with those found at Laney's house, where she was found beaten, choked and stabbed to death.
Preliminary tests from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed a match, Wells said.
Cloud was being held without bail in the county jail, where he has been since early September for violating his probation by dropping out of a drug treatment program.
He was released from prison in March 2001 after serving about half of a 10-year sentence for carjacking.
According to court records, Cloud told a judge in July he violated his probation by using cocaine. He skipped a hearing scheduled for Aug. 2, a day before the killing.
Two weeks later, the judge ordered Cloud jailed without bail. Cloud hasn't confessed to the killing, and hasn't cooperated with investigators, deputies said. Authorities haven't announced a motive for the slaying.
Neil Sauvi, Laney's son, said Cloud was in the house to steal money.