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Two charged in slayings of homeless

Police say robbery may have been behind the shooting of one of two homeless men in St. Petersburg.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published February 7, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Police arrested two men Tuesday in connection with the killings of a pair of homeless men last month that shocked the city and drew national attention.

Dorion Dillard, 20, and Cordaro Hardin, 18, who both face two counts of first-degree murder, are accused of fatally shooting Jeff Shultz and David Heath on Jan. 17.

Both Dillard and Hardin made incriminating statements, police said.

Robbery may have played a role in Shultz's killing, police said. Sgt. Mike Kovacsev, the head of the department's homicide unit, said Heath's killing may have been random.

Family members of the slain men said they were happy with the arrests.

"I'm happy that they're off the streets and somebody else isn't going to have to go through the same experience," said Heath's son, Jason Heath, 20, who works in customer relations for the St. Petersburg Times.

"I'm just happy that maybe I can get some sort of closure."

Richard Hartz, 65, Shultz's stepfather, said "that's great news," after learning of the arrests.

Dillard and Hardin are St. Petersburg residents and have criminal records. Hardin faces additional charges of violation of probation and burglary.

Dillard has been arrested on charges of marijuana possession, crack cocaine possession burglary and auto theft, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hardin has been arrested several times on charges of cocaine possession and violating probation.

Heath, 53, and Shultz, 43, were shot within an hour of each other early Jan. 17 in alleys nine blocks apart in the quiet residential neighborhood of Central Oak Park.

After the shootings, police said they believed the same three teenagers were involved in both killings. Witnesses at both scenes told police they saw three black male teenagers with close cropped hair walking away from the bodies.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said detectives identified the third man seen that night, but have not arrested him. In addition, police said, they had learned of a fourth man present the night of the killings, but have not arrested him either.

Proffitt said the arrests came after an intense investigation and hoped they would ease fears among the city's homeless.

"We really have been... working this really hard the last few weeks," Proffitt said.

Sgt. Kovacsev said as many as 20 detectives helped work on the case. Detectives Joe DeLuca and Lorry Dunn, the lead investigators, worked 16-hour days canvassing the neighborhood and local schools. They also made several other arrests and developed leads that led them to Dillard and Hardin.

"They deserve a lot of kudos because they really put their hearts into this one," Kovacsev said.

Both Heath and Shultz were well known among St. Petersburg's homeless. After the killings, many homeless people began setting up tents and camping together near busy intersections for safety. The new tents led to a political firestorm.

Police raided one tent city at Fifth Avenue N and 15th Street and slashed and seized tents just days after the killings because they said they feared fire code violations. A public outcry followed. Mayor Rick Baker later said the decision to cut tents "was a mistake" and police said they didn't plan any more raids.

Now, two tent cities coexist with the city. Although some homeless people still have tents on 15th Street, a new tent city has formed on 18th Street near Central Avenue.

Bill Schultz, 70, a homeless man who stays around Williams Park in downtown St. Petersburg, said he felt safer after hearing of the arrests.

"It's a hell of a thing to say, but just because we are homeless doesn't make us less human," he said.

Heath was once a bat boy for the New York Mets and came from a prominent St. Petersburg family that owned restaurants such as the Careless Navigator on Treasure Island and the Red Cavalier on Madeira Beach. He struggled with bipolar disorder and crack cocaine and spent his last years searching for a program that could help him get off drugs.

Shultz loved the ocean, fixed boat engines and had just returned to the city after visiting his family in North Fort Myers over the Christmas holiday. He recently spent months in jail after an officer found a crack pipe in his pocket last year.

Recently, Dillard left a note for his girlfriend on her MySpace page. It begins: "baby, we done been thru so much in this past year... with me in and out if jail and you stressing all the time and breaking your back everyday at work, all that is changing now."

Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff writers Casey Cora and Eddy Ramirez contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.

[Last modified February 8, 2007, 11:53:40]