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Detectives get their Man-Man

A store robbery suspect wanted since April surrenders, saying police were bothering his family and friends.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 21, 2005

TAMPA - Life on the lam isn't easy. There's all that running and hiding. The cops start knocking on friends' and relatives' doors.

This week, the man they call "Man-Man" decided the stress was too much. He told his lady friend's mother to call authorities. It was time to turn himself in.

Tuesday afternoon in east Tampa, two Tampa police detectives picked up Morris Lee Moore, 27, wanted since April in connection with the armed robbery of Abella's Market, 1910 N 34th St.

Moore met the detectives in the 3000 block of 43rd Avenue and went into custody willingly. Then he started bragging.

"I could have stayed hiding for years because I have a lot of people who love me and would hide me, but you guys were starting to bother too many good people looking for me," Moore told Detective John Sluckis, according to Sluckis' report.

Moore, acquitted of first-degree murder by a Hillsborough jury in 1995, said he had "beat a first-degree murder rap, and I will beat this, too."

Asked about the Abella's surveillance tape that prompted police to name Moore as their suspect, Moore said police had the wrong man.

"That wasn't me on the video," he said, according to the report. "It was someone who looked like me."

Then Moore, previously convicted of armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer, told Sluckis to refer any other questions to his lawyer.

The arrest came several days after Tampa police and the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force started putting heat on Moore's known acquaintances.

Friday, U.S. Marshal Lisa Alfonso, also the agency's local spokeswoman, went to an apartment complex at 4220 Patsy Court and interviewed a woman thought to have loaned Moore her black Nissan Maxima, Alfonso said.

Monday night, security officials from the apartment complex called to say residents had seen Moore walking around. Alfonso said she distributed wanted posters and her business card and told residents there was a reward for help in capturing Moore - also known as Man-Man because of tattoos on both arms that read "Man."

"I called him Man-Man about a dozen times, and they finally said, "No, now we call him Two-Man,"' Alfonso said. "Whatever."

Tuesday afternoon, Alfonso got a call from the mother of the woman with the Nissan Maxima. The mother said she had a message from Moore.

"He said he was tired of all the pressure," Alfonso said. "He didn't want anyone getting hurt."

Times staff researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 21, 2005, 00:55:05]