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By Times Staff
Published September 29, 2006

Rouson takes hate crime case

ST. PETERSBURG - Darryl Rouson, the former president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP, is representing the local black mother who was jailed on a hate crime charge after allegedly calling another woman a "white (whore)" at St. Petersburg High School.

LaTonya Crockett, 33, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and carrying a weapon on school grounds Monday.

St. Petersburg police say she threatened a white woman, Janice F. Scsavnicki, 42, with part of a Club, the antitheft device, after a road rage incident. They classified the assault charge as a hate crime.

Man convicted in carwash killing

TAMPA - The case against DeAndre Gartmond ended Thursday evening with guilty verdicts for first-degree murder and armed robbery and two life prison sentences. But not before a twist that caught even courthouse veterans off guard.

Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett was preparing to read jury instructions when Gartmond, a 21-year-old from Bartow, whispered to his attorneys. He wanted to testify. Padgett let Gartmond take the stand.

Authorities claimed Gartmond robbed and killed 44-year-old Ronald Preston at a carwash on S Dale Mabry Highway about 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2005. Then he went back to Polk County and used Preston's credit card for several purchases, the prosecution said.

On the stand, Gartmond said he had gotten the credit card on Aug. 29, 2005, from a guy he knew. But he said he never came to Tampa that morning.

After Gartmond's testimony, Padgett allowed attorneys to do a second round of closing arguments. The jury then deliberated for several hours.

Rejected petitions to be reviewed

TAMPA - Hundreds of legitimate voter signatures were rejected by elections officials when they reviewed petitions for a referendum on a Hillsborough County mayor, says the group trying to get the measure on the ballot.

Now the Supervisor of Elections' Office has agreed to review the petitions again, said Mary Ann Stiles, leader of the Taking Back Hillsborough County Political Committee pushing a county mayor. The committee fell about 3,000 signatures short of the 37,202 needed to get a vote for a mayoral form of government on this year's ballot.

During the signature verification process, the elections office rejected several thousand petitions. Stiles said Thursday a review by her group of 3,000 signatures showed that 277, or 9.2 percent, of the petitions should never have been thrown out.

[Last modified September 29, 2006, 01:06:17]