Statements indicate the man charged with first-degree murder in a September fight was drunk and blacked out.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published November 18, 2003
It started with a Bucs loss and some beer. It ended in what authorities say was murder.
And the man accused told witnesses he doesn't remember the fight that landed him in jail.
Prosecutors released witness statements and other information Monday in the killing of Todd Byers, 40, who died just after midnight Sept. 15 in a brawl at a Land O'Lakes convenience store.
Timothy Hahn, 23, of New Hudson, Mich., was arrested four days later after investigators tracked him through a Greyhound bus ticket to Tennessee. He is charged with first-degree murder and remained Monday at the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes.
Prosecutors say Hahn and friends got into a fight with Byers and his brother. During the scuffle, Hahn got into his car and rammed Byers into a wall, and smashed into him three times, killing him.
In newly released documents, friends who were with Hahn during the brawl say the fight came after a day of drinking beer and liquor, beginning with an overtime Buccaneers football loss to the Carolina Panthers.
And when the brawl was over and a man was dead, Hahn told friends he "blacked out" and didn't remember.
Edward Charles Prince of Tampa told prosecutor Phil Van Allen during a Sept. 22 interview that he spent all day Sept. 14 with Hahn.
"It was the Bucs game. We was drinking some beer," Prince said. "And, then, after that, we had gone up to the store; we got more beer. . . . Drank some beer. And then, all of a sudden, it was about 12 o'clock, it got late. And then everybody's like, all right. We watched the Bucs game; we drank beer; we missed dinner. So we thought we'd go to Taco Bell."
Another friend, Courtney B. Bryant, said sometime after the game and before the Taco Bell run, someone went out for a bottle of liquor.
"They were really drunk," Bryant said.
They bought food at a Taco Bell and stopped at the convenience store so Bryant could use the restroom, she said in an interview with Van Allen. Somehow, they ended up in an argument with Byers and his brother. Witnesses said they weren't really sure how the argument started.
Byers, who was visiting from Louisiana, was returning with his brother, his brother's wife and his fiancee from a day at the beach.
Bryant said Prince drove Hahn's car up to the store, pulled up next to Byers' car and somehow things heated up in an instant.
"We pulled in just, I mean, I didn't even really think anything of it," she said. "They were yelling about how he pulled in."
She said one of the men in Byers' car told them he had a gun. Prince and Hahn grabbed baseball bats from the trunk of Hahn's car. There was a fight. Hahn ended up in the driver's seat of his car, and he put the car in drive and smashed into Byers, knocking him high up against the wall of the convenience store, Bryant said.
He backed up, and drove again into Byers and hit Byers' sister-in-law, Patty Byers, who was trying to help him.
Hahn slammed the car into Bryant as he backed up, Bryant said. She remembers the pain and doesn't know how she got into his car as he sped away.
Within moments, investigators had their first clues. Documents show that a store clerk and witnesses from stores near the convenience store called 911 as the fight progressed, and as Hahn sped away, at least one witness got Hahn's Michigan license plate number.
The next morning, Prince said, he confronted Hahn about ramming Byers.
"He said, "Eddy,' he said, "I don't know.' He said, "I blacked out,' " Prince said. "He was like, "I don't remember what happened.' "
Prince said he explained to Hahn how he slammed into Byers.
"He's, like, "I'm, like, going down.' "
Hahn has pleaded not guilty.
Van Allen said Monday the investigation is continuing, and more charges might be filed against Hahn, including charges from injuries Patty Byers suffered when she was struck.
