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Police: Inmate planned killings

The suspect, already in jail first-degree murder charge, tried to arrange three killings, officials say.

By NORA KOCH
Published January 27, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - While in jail awaiting trial on charges of shooting his uncle to death, Sitki Ozkardes tried to arrange the murders of three other family members, police say.

Officials charged the 33-year-old Turkish man with three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

Tarpon Springs detectives said Ozkardes ordered hits on the wife and two adult children of Safa Gul, who in August was killed in his home while babysitting a 16-month-old grandson.

Ozkardes, the nephew of Gul's wife, agreed to pay $2,000 for the killings, police said, though the attacks never were carried out.

Since September, Ozkardes has been held without bail in the Pinellas County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the fatal shooting of Gul and the abduction of Gul's grandson.

From October to December, Ozkardes worked out the framework of the hits with a police informant, an unidentified individual with whom he had a prior relationship, police said.

Ozkardes agreed in writing and conversation to pay the individual to kill Nazirine Gul, 45, Sena Gul, 23, and Selcuk Gul, 24.

Using code words and smuggled communication in English and Turkish, Ozkardes gave instructions of how to carry out the killings, said Sgt. Al MacKenzie.

"It's kind of stunning that someone would want to kill the whole family," MacKenzie said.

Ozkardes also agreed to pay $100 for the informant to order a man to return to Turkey and not testify in the upcoming trial or he would be killed, officials say. For that, Ozkardes faces a charge of tampering with a witness.

He is scheduled to be in court Feb. 28 for a pretrial hearing in Gul's murder.

Gul was found shot in the head and chest with a small-caliber pistol the afternoon of Aug. 18. At the time of his death, he was babysitting his 16-month-old grandson, Ibrahim, at the family's home in the Harbor Oaks subdivision.

Another family member, East Lake High School student Cihan "James" Gul, 16, arrived home from school about 2:30 p.m. that day to find Safa Gul dead and the child missing.

Police issued a statewide missing child alert for the toddler. Ibrahim was found unharmed about eight hours later in the parking lot of an Oldsmar shopping plaza.

In September, Ozkardes was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping. The shooting and abduction are thought to have stemmed from family problems, including a dispute over a large sum of money, police said in September.

In November, Sena Gul, the toddler's mother, was arrested after she allegedly showed up with a handgun at the home of Ozkardes' family. An unidentified victim said "he was in great fear of his life because (Sena Gul) said earlier she would kill (the) entire family," according to the police affidavit.

Sena Gul has denied in interviews with the Times that she carried a gun or wanted to harm the family. She said she just wanted to know why anyone would want to kill her father.

Selcuk Gul, the victim's son and an alleged target of Ozkardes' plot, said he and his family would not comment because of the pending trial.

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 00:51:54]