Examiner: Man, 19, probably drowned

Laboriel Felton, the Clearwater man who drove through a traffic checkpoint and led deputies on a chase that ended with his death in a swamp off U.S. 19, apparently drowned.

"The medical examiner gave a verbal ruling of cause of death Sunday," said Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Greg Tita. "Preliminarily, we were told it was a drowning, but we don't have actual autopsy results and we probably won't until toxicology (tests) come back."

Results of the toxicology tests could take days, if not weeks.

Deputies said the 19-year-old sped away from a traffic checkpoint in a stolen 2002 Ford Escort early Sunday and later tried to drown a deputy and a police dog in a lagoon adjacent to the Crown Honda dealership just north of Gandy Boulevard.

The water in the swamp is more than 10 feet deep, according to Detective Tim Grundmann, who said Felton fought with deputies as they tried to pull him out of the muck. Grundmann said deputies grabbed Felton by the hair at one point, but he broke free and was last seen wading backward toward dense vegetation in middle of the lagoon -- some 70 feet from the shore.

Felton's relatives have questioned the deputies' story and have asked the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP to conduct its own investigation.

Sheriff's investigators were back at the scene Wednesday, charting the swamp's depth and searching for evidence.

-- Leon M. Tucker can be reached at (727) 445-4167 or tucker@sptimes.com .

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