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Man charged with murder takes deal

Steve Rodela, who faced up to 30 years in prison, will serve one year in county jail.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published December 14, 2005

DADE CITY - One punch.

Authorities say that's all it took for Steve Rodela to knock James Helton to the ground in May 2004 and send him into a coma from which he would never awake.

He died four months later. In January, Rodela was charged with third-degree murder and faced up to 30 years in prison. But late Tuesday afternoon, Rodela, 29, agreed to a plea deal:

One year.

Rodela pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of felony battery and to seven other charges he's amassed since his fateful encounter with Helton.

"It's like that saying in The Godfather," defense attorney A.R. "Chip" Mander III said. " "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.' "

Instead of going to trial this week, the State Attorney's Office made the offer. A key witness failed to show for a Tuesday morning meeting with prosecutors, and another witness, the victim's mother, said she could not leave Tennessee for the trial because of impending surgery for eyelid skin cancer.

"That's what precipitated this," said prosecutor Stacey Sumner, adding that the victim's family agreed to a below-the-guidelines sentence.

But it wasn't just a good deal for the defense, Mander said.

"We were pretty comfortable we were going to win the trial," the lawyer said.

Then Mander laid out all the reasonable doubts jurors would have heard: that it was Helton who burst into a fenced backyard to interrupt a sexual encounter between Rodela and an old girlfriend on a trampoline; it was Helton, grasping a quart of beer, who claimed the woman would be his wife, then threatened Rodela and pulled on his shirt; after the punch, Helton was unconscious for 10 minutes, awoke, apologized and went back home.

The next day he fell into a coma. Mander said the medical examiner revealed that Helton had traces of cocaine in his system, and his blood-alcohol level hours after the encounter was 0.112, over the 0.8 legal limit. Helton's family had also refused police help that night, refusing to let anyone look in on him, the attorney said, so who knows what else happened to him between the punch and when he fell into a coma?

Helton died at age 42 on Sept. 24, 2004, in an Auburndale nursing home.

"It's a real interesting case," Mander said. "In my opinion it should never have been filed."

The other charges for which Rodela will serve a year in county jail are possession of methamphetamine, driving with a suspended license, possession of drug paraphernalia, providing a false name to an officer, threats against a public servant, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest without violence. His criminal record, dating to 1976, includes grand theft, battery and driving under the influence.

"Are you satisfied with Mr. Mander as your attorney?" Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper asked.

"I can well imagine," the judge said.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:15:15]