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Sheriff's Office lost evidence in Steele case

Attorneys for the man accused in a deputy's shooting learn a bullet fragment is missing.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published April 4, 2007

DADE CITY - A bullet fragment lodged in the shirt of Pasco sheriff's Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison disappeared early in the investigation of his 2003 killing.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the man accused of shooting the deputy say they only just learned of the lost piece of evidence.

And it's so critical, they say, that the case should be dismissed.

Alfredie Steele Jr. faces trial this month, accused of gunning down the deputy on June 1, 2003, outside the Trilacoochee nightclub Rumors. He faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

Attorneys on both sides of the case met Tuesday. It was then that memos surfaced referring to the lost bullet.

According to the defense motion, Sheriff's Office forensics investigator Denice Weigand noticed the bullet fragment was missing June 4, 2003, just four days after Harrison's death. After a three-day search, she wrote to her supervisor about the loss.

But she didn't mention the missing bullet in her report on the case or during a sworn deposition with Steele's attorney.

"From what you just told me, is that everything you could testify to, or is there anything else you could say?" assistant public defender Tom Hanlon asked her on Oct. 1, 2003.

"Not that I recall," Weigand replied.

Weigand's supervisor, who approved her report and wrote her a letter of reprimand for the mistake, and others involved in the search also did not mention it in deposition, the motion says.

Prosecutors say they have three recordings of Steele confessing to shooting Harrison with an SKS rifle because he was distraught over the deaths of his friends. But there is little physical evidence to implicate Steele, save for another piece of a bullet retrieved from Harrison's body that matches others found in an old picnic shelter where Steele said he fired the gun hours earlier.

Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll referred questions about the motion to the State Attorney's Office and declined to comment about the loss of evidence.

Calls to the State Attorney's Office were not returned.

In his motion, Assistant Public Defender Jason Bavol says Steele cannot receive a fair trial.

"Because the fragment was lost, no testing by either the state or defense is possible," he wrote.

A hearing is set for Monday. Steele's trial is scheduled to begin April 16.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-6521 or moorhead@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 3, 2007, 21:52:21]