Deputies look for tenant in stabbing death of landlord

The suspect was last seen just hours before the body was discovered.

By MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED
Published July 20, 2007

TAMPA - Bloody fingerprints link a convicted felon to the killing of a Ruskin landlord found dead in his home at 5 a.m. Thursday.

Deputies have issued a warrant for first-degree murder for 35-year-old Jarvis Tabron, who had been staying at the home of Luis A. Escobar, of 409 SE Fifth Ave., for about a week.

Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said Escobar shared his home with two tenants, and one of them called deputies after discovering the 54-year-old's body on his bedroom floor.

Escobar had been stabbed, Carter said. Citing the ongoing investigation, she declined to name the tenant who found Escobar.

Deputies found bloody fingerprints matching Tabron's at the scene. Tabron was last seen at the house about 11 p.m. Wednesday. Carter said.

Tabron previously spent three years in prison after "having sexual contact with a woman against her will" in an Ohio parking lot, the Dayton Daily News reported in 2004.

Delores Flood, who is the cousin of Tabron's wife, said she hasn't seen him since he moved out of her home in Washington, D.C., before his 2004 arrest.

He was released in May 2007 and moved to Tampa, Florida Department of Corrections records show. In June, he spent 10 days in jail for violating probation.

Flood said that although she hasn't seen Tabron since 2004, she got a bizarre call from him late Tuesday.

He told her to go outside, that he was getting ready to pull up at her house, she said. She watched for him, but he didn't show up.

Anyone with information about Tabron, described as black, 5'5" and 180 pounds, is asked to call the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office at (813) 247-8200.

[Last modified July 20, 2007, 00:24:59]