Robber uses machete to get cash from CVS

By Times Staff Writer
Published October 17, 2007

TAMPA

Tampa police are seeking a man they say used a machete to help him rob a CVS pharmacy. Police say that around 8:35 a.m. Saturday at 2725 N MacDill Ave., a 6-foot, 30- to 40-year-old man held up a machete while demanding that a cashier hand over money from her register. Then he ran south. He was last seen wearing a blue jacket, white T-shirt and white basketball shorts with a stripe down the legs. He also had on gloves, sunglasses and a dark stocking cap. Detectives found the machete in the parking lot south of the drug store. No one was injured.

Ex-babysitter gets 20-year sentence

A judge sentenced Charity Sato to 20 years in prison Tuesday for sexually abusing children she had been hired to babysit. Sato, 23, was a Riverview family's live-in nanny for just two weeks in 2005 before disturbing details about her behavior came to light. Prosecutors said she plied the children with cigarettes, spiked their drinks with alcohol and engaged in sex acts with them. Last month, she pleaded guilty to four instances of lewd and lascivious behavior. Her victims, an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, now live out of state. Neither was present for the sentencing, but the girl's mother sent a written statement about the effect the sex abuse had on her daughter. "I am hurt," the mother wrote, according to a prosecutor who read the statement. But "I will not allow my life, or theirs, to be ruled by the mistrust of a human being." Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett also sentenced Sato to 10 years of sex offender probation, in accordance with her plea agreement with the state.

Killer's friend convicted for alibi

In an unusual case, a Tampa man accused of making up an alibi for a friend in a murder case was convicted of felony perjury Tuesday. Nicholas Lanier was charged with testifying in court that Michael Glenn was at a barbecue at the same time as a man named Antonio Powell was shot to death in 2003 robbery. Glenn was convicted of first-degree murder last year. As evidence against Lanier, prosecutors presented a recorded call from Glenn at the county jail during which the two men talked about the alibi. Lanier, who has a record of drug and weapons convictions, was found guilty by a jury Tuesday. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, suspended after 10, by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder.

HOLIDAY

Man goes to jail over lunch meat

First, a Pasco County sheriff's report says, he tried to leave Sweetbay with lunch meat in his shorts. And second, after a manager stopped him, he lit a cigarette inside the store at 3406 U.S. 19, then used it to burn a hole in the rug. Finally, the report says, the man, Richard Paul Conyers, got in the manager's face and said, "I have no problem punching you." Conyers, 51, of 1814 Pleasure Drive, Holiday, was arrested after the incident Monday afternoon and charged with retail theft, criminal mischief and simple assault. He was held at the Land O'Lakes jail Tuesday in lieu of $800 bail.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 05:53:40]