TAMPA - On Wednesday, in the neighborhood where the two boys lived and died, anger filled the space once reserved for sadness.
By midmorning, news of Jennifer Porter's arrest in the hit-and-run accident that killed 13-year-old Bryant Wilkins and his 3-year-old brother, Durontae Caldwell, began seeping into homes near N 22nd Street and E 143rd Ave.
Residents shook their heads and frowned. Some mumbled under their breath. Several cursed aloud.
"That's all?" said Vivian Limton, 40, when she learned that Porter will not face a charge of vehicular homicide. "That ain't right. That ain't right at all."
Even Lisa Wilkins, mother of the two dead boys, said she was angry when she learned from her attorney Tuesday night that Jennifer Porter would not be charged with vehicular homicide.
She said she prayed about it and talked with her attorney, Tom Parnell, who explained the legal reasons why investigators brought only the charge of leaving the scene of an accident with death.
"The police did their job," she said. "My babies are gone and there's nothing I can do to bring them back."
But many of the people who had cried at vigils, held candles and murmured prayers still seemed overcome with outrage on Wednesday.
They said Porter deserved stiffer charges. They said she should have been arrested weeks earlier. They said she shouldn't have been allowed to turn herself in at the county jail, post a $7,500 bond and walk out.
Much of the anger seemed fueled not so much by race, but by class. Most people along N 22nd Street see Jennifer Porter as a woman from another neighborhood, another level of society, a woman with some money and a high-powered lawyer.
"It ain't a black and white thing," said Shameka Jackson, 23. "It's a green and white thing. In this case, it looks like bulls--- walks and money talks."
Again and again, residents insisted that Porter had gotten an easy ride from investigators and prosecutors, that no one from this neighborhood would have been treated so gently.
"What would've happened if any one of us had accidentally run over kids in her neighborhood?" said Joseph Lively, 33, who lives on E 143rd Street.
"If the roles were reversed, we would be screwed. There isn't a man or woman in this neighborhood who would be allowed to get away with what Ms. Porter and her high-dollar lawyers are getting away with."
Connie Burton, president of the Tampa branch of the Uhuru Movement, said the group plans to demonstrate Monday morning outside Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober's office.
"This is ridiculous," Burton said of the charge against Porter and the manner in which she was arrested.
At Rest Haven Memorial Park, less than five miles from all of Wednesday's anger and emotion, the tree-lined cemetery where the bodies of Durontae and Bryant lay was quiet and peaceful.
An Easter basket sat atop their graves. Two wreaths were falling apart, and the artificial roses and carnations looked a little worn.
A half-deflated balloon fluttered in the breeze. The words on it read, "Thinking of You."
- Times staff writers Saundra Amrhein and Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler contributed to this report.
