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Police say maintenance man fondled teen at mall

By Times Staff
Published April 3, 2006

CLEARWATER - A maintenance man working at the Countryside Mall was arrested Saturday night after police say he grabbed a 16-year-old girl and said he wanted to have sex with her.

Albert R. Horton, 51, was talking to the 16-year-old in a secluded part of the mall when he fondled her over her clothes, according to arrest reports.

He was saying he wanted to have sex with her, police said.

A witness in the mall saw Horton touching the girl, who was not identified.

Police said Horton, of Clearwater, knew how old she was. He was charged with battery.

ST. PETERSBURG - A man with a sawed-off shotgun robbed a man at a gas station Saturday night, police said.

Patrick William Fey, 19, took $300 cash from the victim in a BP gas station on 45th Street, near Ninth Avenue N, said St. Petersburg police.

He was carrying a .410 gauge shotgun, police said.

Fey, of 10500 Snug Harbor Road, was later found by police and identified by the victim, Edgar Melvin.

Officers also found the shotgun, police said.

Fey, who was charged with armed robbery, was held Sunday at Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Police said further charges are pending.

CLEARWATER - A pair of men racing at speeds over 110 mph on the Bayside Bridge were arrested early Sunday, authorities said.

Joel Barbot, 20, of St. Petersburg and Joshua K. Lewis, 19, of Wendell, N.C., were charged with racing on the highway in the southbound lanes after about 1 a.m.

Barbot, in a 2001 silver Mitsubishi, was driving at 111 mph, deputies said. Lewis, in a black BMW sedan, was driving at 110 mph, deputies said.

The speed limit is 55 mph.

TAMPA - A 57-year-old Seffner man was found unconscious in his pickup on the shoulder of westbound Interstate 4 early Sunday, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Paramedics tried to revive the unresponsive man but couldn't, and he died, troopers said.

The medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine a cause of death.

Troopers did not immediately release the man's name because his relatives had not been contacted. He was found in a 2003 Dodge Ram on the shoulder of I-4, west of U.S. 301, just before 7 a.m.

DALLAS - A grueling "Final Four" championship ended Sunday with a narrow win for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County after a weekend of cutthroat competition: Not on the basketball court but on the chess board.

UMBC defeated the University of Texas at Dallas 9-8 at the Final Four of intercollegiate chess.

The championship has bounced back and forth between the two schools since the competition began six years ago.

Miami-Dade College placed third with 5 points. Duke University finished fourth with 2 points.

Teams qualified for the tournament after finishing among the nation's top four teams at the 2005 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in December.

[Last modified April 3, 2006, 00:42:17]