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Letter to the editor

Man sentenced to life in slaying

By JOSE CARDENAS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2007

William Truesdale was in a rage when he called Natalie Suggs and asked her to come see him.

If she didn't come, he threatened, "you're going to make me do something stupid."

On the afternoon of Dec. 17, 2005, Truesdale drove to Suggs' home in St. Petersburg. He fired a shotgun through a window.

Three pellets struck Suggs' 22-year-old daughter, Ashley, between the eyes, on the chest and her neck.

She died a few minutes later near the Christmas tree.

"He took half of me with him when he took away my daughter," a tearful Suggs said in a Pinellas County courtroom Friday.

Moments earlier, a jury had found Truesdale, 49, guilty of second-degree murder.

Assistant State Attorney Aaron Slavin asked Pinellas Circuit Court Judge Jack Day to put Truesdale behind bars for the rest of his life. Day agreed and sentenced the St. Petersburg man to life in prison.

Natalie Suggs and her daughter lived in a second-floor apartment in the 2800 block of Seventh Street South.

According to court testimony, Suggs had an on-and-off-relationship with Truesdale, a truck driver, but did not want to see him anymore.

On the afternoon of Dec. 17, Ashley Suggs was at home with her best friend, Kenyota Bellany. Through the living room window, the women saw Truesdale drive by in his rusty yellow truck.

Ashley went to into her mother's bedroom, Bellany testified. Then there was a shotgun blast.

After the shooting, Truesdale went to the home of his niece and her fiance. The couple told police he was acting odd. The fiance, Leroy Johnson, testified that Truesdale said, "I think I just shot somebody." Johnson also told police that Truesdale hid the shotgun in his garage.

"He thought no one would turn him in," Assistant State Attorney Jan Olney told jurors. "He was wrong. Leroy Johnson did the right thing."

Defense attorney Gary Potts argued his client was a victim of circumstance. He said police failed to follow other leads.

Potts noted the lack of physical evidence connecting his client to the murder. No one saw Truesdale pull the trigger. His fingerprints were not on the shotgun. A shell found in his truck didn't match those that killed Ashley.

"I ask you," Potts told the jury, "do not fall on the same trap and close the door on him."

Ashley's father, Michael Suggs, spoke before the sentencing. His voice quivering with emotion, he asked the judge to impose the maximum penalty.

"This man took something away from me," Michael Suggs said. "He should rot in prison."

[Last modified September 1, 2007, 00:15:34]