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Three arrests in house bombings

Police say drug dealers ordered the use of explosives against Palmetto Park crime watch residents.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published July 17, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — Crime watch leaders in the Palmetto Park neighborhood took on local drug dealers over the past year, chanting slogans outside suspected drug houses and photographing their patrons.

The drug dealers struck back by ordering the firebombing of two watch leaders’ homes in May, authorities said Monday.

The dealers gave a man five pieces of crack cocaine to throw Molotov cocktails at the homes of the watch members, who had become too “nosey” and deserved to have their houses “gassed,” according to a federal affidavit released Monday.

Police and federal agents arrested Jerome Flowers and two local drug dealers who they say ordered Flowers to attack the homes of neighborhood watch members.

Flowers carried out their orders in May, authorities allege, but failed to do much damage to the homes. Still, the attack sparked fear among many residents who said drug dealing in the neighborhood had gotten out of control.

Palmetto Park is a neighborhood in transition. Some residents have lived there for decades, but many crime watch members are recent arrivals who are fixing up homes in a city where affordable housing is growing scarce.

Wilbert Conner Jr., 36, and Henry Hill, 44, told Flowers, 48, to throw the explosive cocktails, the arrest affidavit says. All three now face federal charges of illegally conspiring to make and possess incendiary devices.

Matthew Culp, who had one of the cocktails thrown at his house, said he was pleased with the arrests, but still distressed at how dangerous the neighborhood became before authorities took action.

“It’s really disturbing to see it come to this point before these arrests are made,” Culp said. “They didn’t see police as the real threat, they saw citizens as the real threat.”

Culp said the neighborhood has gotten much better since police raided another house in the neighborhood in June.

The heavy traffic the drug dealers drew chased birds away, Culp said. “We actually see birds hanging out again,” he said.

Sherrie Cason, 39, Conner’s older sister, called the charges against her brother bogus and vowed to fight them.

She said her brother was in jail when the cocktails were thrown, and called the neighborhood watch members troublemakers.

“My brother didn’t have anything to do with it,” Cason said. “They are all lying.”

Police came across evidence leading to the arrests after raiding a house at 224 27th St. S that residents called a center for drug dealing.

After raiding the house, authorities say they got a tip from an arrested woman named Karen Singletary. She told them that Hill and Conner ordered Flowers to “gas” a house that Culp shares with his partner, Wade Burghardt. She said Flowers also threw a cocktail at the home of Franco Cammardella, who was also active in neighborhood watch programs.

Flowers eventually admitted his crime to a police detective and federal agent, the affidavit says. Flowers told authorities he owed money to drug dealers and that Hill and Conner threatened to hurt him unless he carried out their instructions to “gas” the two residences.

After examining forensic evidence, authorities say they were able to corroborate Flowers’ account. Flowers said drug dealers were losing business because of the new activism in the community.

Flowers said the victims “were informing law enforcement of all the drug dealing occurring in the neighborhood and in return interfering with Hill and Conner’s illegal operations,” the affidavit said.

Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.

[Last modified July 17, 2006, 22:02:54]