Spat over salad leads Tarpon Springs couple to jail
The quarrel during a dinner party escalates into an armed confrontation with police.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published May 28, 2003
TARPON SPRINGS - It was all going fine until the salad got in the mix.
Sandra Garner and her husband, Darryl Garner, had invited a few guests over to their apartment on S Highland Avenue for a Memorial Day dinner. The menu was simple: A few drinks. A little chicken. And a whole lot of salad.
Too much salad, Sandra Garner complained, adding expletives like croutons.
Little did she know the complaint would lead her husband to an armed confrontation with police and land both of them in the Pinellas County Jail.
Police say the trouble started Monday evening after Sandra Garner's complaints about the excess appetizer led to a heated argument.
Too much salad, she screamed. She was always blaming him for something, he shouted back.
Darryl Garner loudly ordered the couple's dinner guests out. When he punched holes in the wall of their house, his wife slapped him the face six times, police said.
They were still arguing when Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Mike Trill responded at about 6:40 p.m. to a complaint about a domestic disturbance. The house was neat, but it was obvious the man of the house had been drinking, Trill said.
The veteran police officer explained to the couple that normal police procedure required him to arrest Sandra Garner on domestic battery charges for hitting her husband.
Darryl Garner, 56, told police he was a retired law enforcement officer who had worked in Broward County before moving to Tarpon Springs. So, he told police, he understood why they had to make the arrest. But when police placed his wife in handcuffs, he became visibly upset.
"He showed a lot of mood swings up and down," Trill said. "He went from understanding to angry to understanding again. But by the time we left, he was laughing with us and said he understood why we were doing what were doing. We thought everything was fine."
It wasn't.
About 10 minutes after police left the Garners' home, Trill and other officers got a call about a man with a gun in his hand walking along Tarpon Avenue. Around 7:25 p.m., when police caught up with the man in front of a Wendy's restaurant at 912 E Tarpon Ave., they recognized him as Garner.
"Sure enough," Trill said, "he had a loaded .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum in his hand and was walking very intently west down Tarpon Avenue toward the police station."
Trill, his gun drawn, and other officers ordered Garner to drop his weapon. Garner said he wasn't going anywhere until they let his wife out of jail.
Concerned for the safety of bystanders, police used their patrol cars to block off the busy road.
"My concern was his state of mind," Trill said. "If he was a law enforcement officer, he probably knew his weapon pretty well; and he was either going to shoot us or make us shoot him."
Trill signaled silently to Tarpon Springs police Officer Derek Anderson, who was sneaking up on Garner from behind. Anderson kicked the weapon out of Garner's hand. An instant later, Trill kicked Garner, who was still coming at him, in the chest. But it still took several officers to wrestle the 5-foot-11, 270-pound retiree to the ground, police said.
"He definitely was pretty strong for his age," Trill said.
Police charged Garner with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and three misdemeanors: use of a firearm while under the influence, improper exhibition of a firearm and disorderly conduct. Police said his blood-alcohol level was .09 percent, slightly over the level at which Florida law considers a person to be impaired.
On Tuesday he was held in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $5,750 bail.
His wife, Sandra Garner, also was held there Tuesday, without bail.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Kristen Perezluhn said a check of the agency's records revealed that Garner did not have any law enforcement certification on file with the state.
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 445-4182 or rondeaux@sptimes.com
