A woman testifies her boyfriend shot a man she had hugged when he arrived at a barbecue.
By CARY DAVIS
Published June 5, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Jesus Sanches was invited to a barbecue on April 1, 2001, but when he showed up at the Shady Hills mobile home, he wasn't exactly a welcome guest.
The host of the party, David Brozey, had several reasons to be angry with Sanches. Brozey's live-in girlfriend, Kathy Henry, had been spending a lot of time with Sanches.
Two days earlier, Sanches had taken Henry to a friend's home in Hernando County. Sanches passed out after mixing cocaine and alcohol, leaving Henry with two unfamiliar men who were watching pornographic videos, she testified from the witness stand Wednesday. Brozey drove up to Hernando to meet Henry, who had started walking home to Pasco in the dark. Brozey wasn't happy, Henry said.
Nevertheless, Sanches was invited to a barbecue at the Lashua Drive mobile home shared by Brozey and Henry.
Minutes after arriving, Sanches was dead, a bullet lodged in his head.
Three days later, authorities found Sanches' body, wrapped in a blanket inside his 1985 Ford Bronco, on the side of Ayers Road in south central Hernando County.
Brozey, 44, is on trial this week in a New Port Richey courtroom, charged with second-degree murder in connection with Sanches' death. He could face life in prison if convicted.
Henry, the state's key witness, testified for four hours Wednesday, offering an emotional account of the circumstances surrounding the slaying and her reluctant role in aiding Brozey's attempts to cover up the crime.
Henry, 45, said she and Sanches were close friends, not lovers. Sanches, a 44-year-old electrician and father of four who lived in Spring Hill, had recently separated from his wife. Henry and Sanches partied together and had long talks about relationship troubles, she said.
Then, the night she accompanied him to Hernando County, he made a pass at her, she testified.
When Sanches showed up - late - for the barbecue two days later, Henry said she hugged him at the door.
Brozey motioned to Sanches with a curled finger and said, "Come here," Henry testified.
Sanchez followed Brozey into the master bedroom of the mobile home, she said. The two men had words. Henry said she was in the living room when she heard a gunshot.
She went into the bedroom and said she found Brozey holding Sanches' limp body. He had been shot in the head.
Henry said she fetched a bundle of towels, at Brozey's urging, to clean up the blood.
"I was scared ... that if I didn't do what I was told, I'd get shot," she testified.
That's why she helped Brozey dump the body in Hernando County, she said. Brozey drove Sanches' Bronco, with the body inside, and she followed in her Pontiac Sunbird. After Brozey abandoned the Bronco, she gave him a ride home, she said.
Henry has not been charged in connection with Sanches' death.
"You don't want to go to jail, do you?" Brozey's public defender, Michael Tewell, asked Henry.
"If it would get this over with," she replied, "take me to jail now."
