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Week in review

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published August 20, 2006

JURY SENDS MESSAGE ON TOWN 'N COUNTRY GANG VIOLENCE: Michael Roberts and Sebastian Luengas were no angels. They dropped out of Leto High School, got in trouble with the law and ran with a gun-toting group that looked for fights.

None of which justified their premature deaths on Feb. 20, a jury decided Thursday.

One woman and five men issued a mandate on gang-related violence by finding Brian Joseph Lima guilty of manslaughter for shooting Roberts and Luengas and aggravated assault for putting seven other teenagers in fear of their lives.

The manslaughter charges alone carry up to 30 years in prison. Lima, 18, will be sentenced Sept. 25.

"This was gang warfare," prosecutor Barbara Coleman said during her closing argument. "As ugly as it sounds, that's what we had that day."

The events of Feb. 20 illustrated the worst of what Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee has said is an emerging problem in the county. He has made gang prevention and enforcement a focus of his first term.

Tension had escalated between the Bloods and TNC Boys for weeks. Authorities said Lima was affiliated with the Bloods (which he denied) and Roberts, 20, and Luengas, 16, were part of the TNC Boys, a group of teens who had grown up together in Town 'N Country.

The night's trouble began when a carload of Bloods drove by the TNC Boys, taunting them to come to their neighborhood for a fight.

The TNC Boys drove to the Bloods' part of town. They threw rocks and bricks toward the home of Freddie Vasquez Jr., another Bloods member.

Lima's attorney argued his client and Vasquez fired warning shots to scare off the crowd. Vasquez is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault but has not yet gone to trial.

LUTZ MAN FACES 608 CHILD PORN CHARGES: John Hoagland's chances of getting out of jail any time soon just got harder.

The 61-year-old Lutz man was first arrested in June on 27 counts of possessing child pornography.

On Thursday, after detectives searched his computers, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office added 581 additional counts to Hoagland's rap sheet, making it a total of 608 counts. One count can signify one image, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Hoagland was held Thursday at Falkenburg Road Jail in lieu of $427,500 bail, according to jail records. He lives at 17912 Singingwood Place.

LIGHTNING KILLS 16-YEAR-OLD ROOFER IN MEADOW POINTE: A roofer was struck and killed by lightning in a rainstorm Thursday afternoon, drawing the attention of authorities who now question whether undocumented immigrants worked at the construction site.

"We're investigating whether (Jeronimo) may or may not be a documented worker," said Doug Tobin, a Pasco County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

About 4 p.m., Jose Alvarez Jeronimo, 16, was working on the roof at 1508 Beaconsfield Drive in Meadow Pointe, a Wesley Chapel development.

He was reaching down for a nail gun on the roof when he was hit by lightning, Tobin said.

Rain was just beginning to fall. "The foreman said, 'Let's get off the roof,' then it happened," said Pasco Sgt. Dave Johnson.

"I've been working in construction for 14 years, and I've never seen a freak accident like this," said Mark Morgan of Tripp Trademark Homes, which is building the house.

Jeronimo's death is the third lightning-related fatality this year in Florida, the National Weather Service said.

Builders say the practice is to get construction workers inside buildings or vehicles when it starts to rain.

"We'll tell them to stop," said Shelly Pelnick, a manager with Inland Homes working on a neighboring house in Meadow Pointe.

[Last modified August 19, 2006, 11:45:24]