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Trial begins in fatal robbery

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published March 28, 2007

CLEARWATER - Four years after her husband was gunned down in a small-dollar robbery at their St. Petersburg grocery, Parvin Haider appeared in Pinellas Circuit Court on Tuesday to face his accused killer.

The prosecution is hoping her testimony about her husband's storekeeping habits could help its case.

Shawntrell Church, now 22, went on trial Tuesday on charges that in February 2003 he entered the couple's small grocery, Watson's Food Town on Fifth Avenue North, stole a small amount of money and fatally shot Muhammad Haider, 49, who was working the counter. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

During testimony Tuesday, Mrs. Haider described how her husband kept change in coin wrappers under the register.

Prosecutors said that one of Church's fingerprints was found on a coin wrapper behind the counter.

"This was a family business, something he was proud of," Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told jurors during opening statements

"This defendant put a value on Mr. Haider's life, and he killed him for that small amount."

The prosecutor told jurors the evidence would show that Church fired a shot that paralyzed Mr. Haider, and left him dying behind the counter. The shot entered below the armpit and struck the heart.

But a defense attorney said in his opening remarks that Church is not the killer.

Attorney Samuel Williams said the store's security video was inconclusive about the robber's identity. He cast doubt on what is expected to be a key element of the prosecution's case: the testimony of Demetria Lloyd, a 32-year-old who lived in a motel with Church, then 18, at the time of the robbery.

Williams told the jury that Lloyd was originally charged with first-degree murder because she drove Church to the store. And he said prosecutors allowed Lloyd to plea-bargain and get a reduced sentence in exchange for her testimony against Church.

"She pled for 15 years because she had to point the finger at someone," Williams told jurors. During a court break, he said the killer could have been someone else connected to Lloyd.

Church is already facing a 30-year sentence for robbing a GTE Federal Credit Union on 39th Avenue N the same day Mr. Haider was killed.

Rosenwasser said the amount of money that Church is accused of stealing from the grocery store had not been determined because it was blended with money from the credit union robbery.

The victim's wife, Mrs. Haider, said she and her husband were originally from Bangladesh, but had long settled in Florida and were raising two children.

The couple had purchased the store just a couple of years before Mr. Haider's death.

In her brief testimony, Mrs. Haider, 45, said she and the children have moved to West Palm Beach since the crime in 2003.

Earlier this year, she said she won't remarry. "I gave myself to my husband and no other person can come into my life," she said.

[Last modified March 28, 2007, 01:05:37]