Eric Murray appears at a hearing in Pinellas County in May. He has a conviction for a lewd and lascivious act involving a child.
LARGO - Eric Murray's criminal record includes one conviction for child abuse and another for a lewd and lascivious act involving a child.
Despite this, and despite violating his probation, Murray, 39, has managed to stay out of prison in recent years even though state guidelines recommended locking him up.
But Murray, a dock builder who lives near Largo, doesn't feel lucky. "I'm a good father," he said. "They make me out to be a bad person but I'm not."
Murray's criminal record shows a history of breaking the law, as well as violating probation.
He pleaded guilty or no contest to several charges from 1983 to 1993, including stealing a purse, carrying a concealed weapon, petty theft and marijuana possession. In two cases, he violated his probation.
Perhaps his most serious case involved a 6-month old-baby girl in 1987. He had originally been charged with sexual battery, but pleaded instead to a lewd and lascivious act on or in the presence of a child. He got a 30-month prison sentence.
With that background, it doesn't seem likely Murray would get any breaks after being charged in 2000 with child abuse for allegedly roughing up a friend's daughter, who had extensive bruises and hair that appeared to have been pulled out.
But even though state sentencing guidelines recommended the "lowest permissible prison sentence" should have been two years and three months, Murray pleaded guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence of three years' probation.
Prosecutors say they sometimes agree to sentences on reduced charges when they're afraid their cases are weak. In this particular case, depositions revealed conflicting stories about the girl's injuries. Also, the victim moved out of state, and the mother did not object to sentencing Murray to probation, said Pinellas-Pasco Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett.
After his probation began, Murray got in trouble again, and again he got a break.
First, he was accused of violating his probation in 2002 after Pinellas deputies arrested him on a charge of aggravated assault on his girlfriend. Murray denied it, his girlfriend did not want to press charges and the case was dropped.
But last year police were called when Murray was returning a cell phone to another ex-girlfriend. He threw the cell phone and yelled "I'll rip your head off and s--- down your throat" and "If you get me arrested, I've got people that will take care of you," according to a police report.
Murray denies that account. But he did get arrested, charged with domestic assault. He pleaded no contest, spent 34 days in jail and admitted to violating his probation. With this new violation, sentencing guidelines called for Murray to spend at least 21/2 years in prison.
Instead, he was placed on community control - house arrest - for two years. This means he is essentially confined to the two-bedroom trailer where he said he lives with his three children, ages 13, 14 and 15. He's not free, exactly, but not in jail either.
Murray said many of the allegations against him were lies. He agreed to plead to the lewd and lascivious charge, he said, only because he was facing 25 years to life if convicted by a jury of sexual battery. He denied committing domestic assault or child abuse.
"I know . . . deep inside of my heart what the truth is and the good man above knows the truth too," he said.
Last month Murray asked Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge R. Timothy Peters to let him off house arrest early. Peters refused.
