Man guilty in armored car killing

LARGO -- Three years ago Friday, armored-car courier Donald Brennan stopped at a Chili's Grill and Bar in St. Petersburg and collected about $10,000.

As he walked back to his armored truck, someone stepped from behind a trash bin and shot him once in the back of the head before stealing a bag of cash.

Nathan John Brinkley later told police he killed the 47-year-old father of three. Was he lying, as he later testified?

A jury late Friday found the St. Petersburg man guilty of first-degree murder after nearly five hours of deliberation. Pinellas-Pasco Judge Richard Luce immediately sentenced Brinkley to life in prison without parole.

Brinkley, a former football player at Northeast High School, took a deep breath and looked down at the defense table as the verdict was announced. Members of Brennan's family sobbed softly in the courtroom behind him.

"It's poetic justice in a way that the verdict was rendered on this day," said Dave Brennan, the victim's brother. "It kind of put somewhat of a closure to it."

Other members of Brennan's family hugged prosecutors Beverly Andringa and Mary Handsel as they left the courtroom.

After telling police that he shot Brennan during a robbery, Brinkley recanted at trial, saying he lied because he thought police might free him if he told them what they wanted to hear.

Andringa and Handsel told jurors that was absurd.

"Every question he had an answer for, no matter how stupid it was," Handsel said in closing arguments.

But Brinkley's attorneys from the Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender's Office say that St. Petersburg police tricked Brinkley, 25, into a false confession during a grueling nine-hour interrogation.

Assistant Public Defender Kandice Friesen told jurors in closing arguments that police repeatedly lied to Brinkley, telling him he had been seen at the crime scene. In fact, she said, no witness could identify the killer.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright