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JAY CRIDLINFamily and friends of two people killed in a car crash 21 months ago are still working through their grief.
BRANDON - The new memorials at the corner of John Moore Road and Bloomingdale Avenue in Brandon usually go up late at night.
There is far less traffic then, and no one wants to see another accident.
But there's another reason, says Lisa Leatherwood.
"If I want to cry, nobody notices," she says.
Tears flow more often than not. The task of changing the sign - posted to memorialize the Aug. 22, 2001, car crash that killed mother and son Jane Mark, 51, and Britten Shores, 14 - is an emotional one.
Ever since Mark - who is Leatherwood's sister - and Britten were killed, the sign has served as a reminder to the community that little from the crash has been resolved.
Mark, an insurance agent from Valrico, was driving her son Britten home that afternoon when investigators say a car driving in the wrong lane ran a red light and smashed into their car.
The driver charged with their deaths, 26-year-old Michael Hollash of Tampa, awaits trial on two counts of vehicular homicide.
The trial has been delayed nearly half a dozen times while Hollash's attorney and the state attorney's office find and interview additional witnesses. A pre-trial hearing was set for Tuesday, but a judge ruled - at the prosecutors' request - that the proceedings be delayed until September.
During the past 21 months, those close to Mark and Shores have itched for a resolution.
"At the time, we wanted justice immediately," Leatherwood said. "But now, all we want is justice."
As a trial approaches, they're doing all they can to prepare themselves and the state attorney's office for what may come.
Take, for example, the sign, refreshed after every delay to update passers-by on the case. Posted just feet from where Mark and Hollash collided, it now includes an impassioned plea for assistance from anyone who may have seen the crash.
"Please help us," it reads. "Anyone who witnessed the accident that killed a mother and son on August 22, 2001, please call the state attorney's office."
At least seven people have called after seeing the sign, offering their eyewitness testimony. In fact, the defense asked for this week's postponement because two witnesses called a number on the sign.
That number belongs to Pam Alvarez of Odessa, who thought of Mark as a sister. The voice mail on her cell phone is set up for potential witnesses:
"If you're calling with any information pertinent to the accident on Aug. 22, 2001, please don't hang up," the message says. "I will get back with you just as soon as I hear the messages."
When family members first met with Rogers and several other prosecutors, including State Attorney Mark Ober, Alvarez was right there with them. Since then, she has made the intersection of Bloomingdale and John Moore the nexus of her universe.
Throughout the investigation, she, like Mark's family, keeps in touch with the state attorney's office to stay abreast of any progress.
"They're tired of me," she said. "But they can get tired of me all they want, because I'm not going to idly sit by.
"I have to carry this through to the end, because I owe my friend and her son that."
For some, the trial delays have drawn out the healing process.
Shores, a freshman at Tropical Acres Christian Academy who played the piano and saxophone, was never close to his biological father. But early on, he developed a relationship with Joe Austin, Mark's longtime boyfriend.
"He wasn't my blood son, but he was like a son to me," Austin said. "For him and his mom to get killed so quickly and for this thing to be dragging out, it's very frustrating."
The challenge facing the state attorney's office - buttressing the reconstruction of an accident in court with 2-year-old eyewitness testimony - is formidable.
Even Brigitte Mark, Jane's daughter, acknowledges that prosecutors have a "shaky case."
At times, the family's frustration has boiled over, particularly considering Hollash's driving record. Since 1997, he has been cited for nine traffic violations, including three speeding violations and three stop sign or red light violations.
Hollash had also been arrested in 1995 for going on a vandalism spree with two friends; he received five years' probation. In April 2001, he was arrested by St. Petersburg police on a grand theft charge; he received six months' probation and a small fine.
Blood tests showed Hollash did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the crash that killed Mark and Shores, but according to the police report, he said he "was returning from work and had not had much sleep last night."
Mark was turning left to head east on Bloomingdale when Hollash's car slammed into hers.
A diagram of the scene in the crash report places his car on the left side of Bloomingdale in the middle of the intersection, and the Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy who filed the initial report stated that he "disregarded the red traffic light."
Despite all the initial evidence, Alvarez said there have been times when she was convinced prosecutors were treating the case lightly.
Under no circumstances, says Assistant State Attorney John Rogers, who is heading up the case, are prosecutors treating the case lightly.
"I totally empathize with them," he said. "Absolutely, positively, this case is not being swept under the rug in any way, shape or form."
Leatherwood says initially she had her doubts, but she is now convinced the state attorney's office is building a good case.
"I think things are going to go well," she said.
A year and a half after the accident, the family and friends are amazed by the community's continued support.
On the 18-month anniversary of the crash, it was Alvarez's turn to hang a new sign at the intersection memorializing Mark and Shores. Friends, relatives, even a few eyewitnesses to the accident came out to pay their respects - just as they had on the one-year anniversary.
"It was amazing," Mark said. "I couldn't even imagine that it would have turned out like that. They didn't know us, and they were coming up and hugging our family and bringing a candle and doing a prayer."
That solidarity has brought Mark's friends and relatives closer together. At Tuesday's pre-trial hearing, Leatherwood, Austin, Alvarez and others sat together, wearing button pins featuring photos of Shores and Mark.
"We may not be blood family, but through it, it's drawn us all together as family," Leatherwood says.
- Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com