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Letter to the editor

Friends recall a life cut short

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published June 29, 2007

A few minutes before she died, Pamela Capitano kissed her fiance.

"I'll call you in a few minutes, " she said to David, who was half-asleep.

That was their ritual. Pam, 42, always called to let David know she had arrived safely at Cash America, the pawnshop on State Road 60 where she worked.

But on June 18, the phone never rang. Later that morning, three Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies knocked on the door of the manufactured home in Plant City.

Pam's 1995 Saturn had swerved off the northbound lane of Turkey Creek Road to avoid a head-on collision with a pickup truck. Witnesses told detectives that the truck lingered in the opposite lane.

Capitano's car struck a utility pole and flipped. She died at the scene. The pickup's driver kept going.

- - -

The parking lot at Stowers Funeral Home in Brandon was a sea of shining chrome. Pamela Capitano had a lot of friends, many of them motorcyclists.

"She had the kind of personality that attracted you, " said Dave Thomas, 54, astride a blue Harley with a rattlesnake skin seat. Thomas wore red boots to the June 22 funeral to honor Pam, who liked those boots.

Thomas remembers when Pam tended bar at the Hog Pen in the Six Mile Creek area of Tampa a few years ago. She was flashy in her own way, favoring heels with her jeans and spaghetti-strap tops. She remembered customers' names.

Michael Mackay, Capitano's boss at Cash America Pawn, said she led the staff in sales.

"People wanted to talk to her, to make deals with her, " Mackay said. If all a customer needed was to pawn a ring for $20, he could do that with Pam and not feel self-conscious, he said.

A motorcycle rider of two years, Capitano loved to spend Saturdays on poker runs with friends, stopping off at parks and watering holes from eastern Hillsborough and Manatee counties to Crystal River.

At night they hung out at Robiconti's Rockhouse Grill and sang karaoke. Pam loved barbecue ribs, but sometimes she would feel guilty afterward and go on a diet.

- - -

Recent years also brought their share of pain.

Pam and David Capitano were never married, though they were planning a wedding. After the crash, some friends told local media that Pam decided to change her name early, out of love.

It made a nice story. But Capitano didn't need to change her last name. In 1986, she had married Michael Capitano, David's older brother.

The brothers and Pam met while students at King High. David, then a sophomore, recalls taking Pam, a senior, to a movie and then to a party.

During the 18 years Pam was married to his brother, David never got over that initial attraction. Pam and Michael Capitano divorced in 2004. Pam moved in with David.

A judge gave custody of the couple's two children, now ages 16 and 11, to Michael Capitano.

Michael Capitano, 43, said he hasn't spoken to his brother in seven years.

"It's affected my kids, " he said of the romance between his ex-wife and his brother. "It's affected my whole family."

David Capitano acknowledged that the issue with Pam and his brother created a rift in his family but said, "It was something that was meant to be."

Pam's car sits in David Capitano's front yard, its left front destroyed, its windshield shattered. David had it towed there to prompt any witnesses.

He thinks the pickup's driver might have been playing "chicken" by driving in the opposite lane.

As of Tuesday, the Sheriff's Office had no leads on the other driver.

Standing in the front yard near the demolished car, David Capitano said he has had trouble sleeping.

He can't stop thinking about that kiss, and an expression of Pam's.

"She used to say, 'I'm the rind around the bologna - you'll never peel me away.' "

He buried his face in his hands.

"It's killing me, " he said.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or 813 661-2431.

[Last modified June 28, 2007, 07:54:09]