The man accused of killing Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison wants potentially incriminating statements he made to detectives thrown out.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published March 5, 2004
DADE CITY - For the first time, the man accused of killing a Pasco County sheriff's deputy last summer testified in court Thursday, if only for 90 seconds, claiming he felt he had no choice but to go to the Sheriff's Office after deputies tailed him hours before his arrest.
Alfredie Steele Jr., 20, took the stand at a hearing before Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper that was continued without a finding until next month. Steele's public defender, Tom Hanlon, is arguing that potentially incriminating statements Steele made to detectives should be thrown out because he wasn't read his rights and didn't make the statements voluntarily.
Steele's brief testimony was limited mostly to agreeing with Hanlon's questions.
Steele is charged with first-degree murder in the June 1 shooting death of Sheriff's Office Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison outside a Trilacoochee nightclub. Harrison was shot in the back as he sat in his patrol car.
Although Tepper withheld her ruling until April, Hanlon said he will not only challenge the first statments Steele made, but will also file a motion to spike statements he made after his arrest.
Sheriff's deputies have testified Steele admitted shooting a rifle at Harrison's car, but claimed he didn't mean to kill Harrison.
At Thursday's hearing, prosecutors played a five-minute videotape of Steele talking with detectives.
On the tape, Steele said he was upset about the death of some friends earlier, including Michael Anthony Reed, who died in a crash after a car chase with deputies.
Steele said he went into the woods to shoot a rifle, then went to a nightclub and got drunk. Afterward, he said, he saw Harrison's patrol car outside the club.
"I didn't intend to hurt nobody or nothing," Steele said.
Deputies thought the statement wasn't specific enough to charge Steele and took him home. Two hours later, Steele called deputies on the telephone and asked to be taken to the Sheriff's Office where deputies say he made a more specific statement and was arrested.
Hanlon told Tepper on Thursday that investigators engaged in a pattern of encouraging those close to Steele to act as their agents, coercing Steele to make those statements.
Steele's mother also testified and said she told deputies she would find her son in the days after Harrison's shooting and bring him to the Sheriff's Office because she was afraid he would get hurt if deputies went out and brought him in.
She said that as she entered Pasco County with her son, after Lacoochee native and professional football player Darren Hambrick helped retrieve him from Daytona Beach, she was tailed by deputies in an unmarked car.
She said she feared if she and her son didn't continue on to the Sheriff's Office, they would be stopped.
Sgt. Eric Anther testified he did follow Hambrick's SUV as it entered the county because he hoped Hambrick would do something wrong that would allow him to stop the vehicle and search it.
Steele appeared in court in a white, jail-issued jumpsuit and a white bullet-resistant vest. His ankles and wrists were shackled.
Hanlon told the judge he wanted to question Hambrick on the stand, but he had requested his appearance only informally, and Hambrick didn't appear.
He said he will subpoena him for the conclusion of the hearing set for April 5.
Hanlon also said more motions, challenging the validity of ballistic science, will be filed.
