Murder case has familiar ring
Suspect in secretary's death has been accused of attacking other women.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 20, 2007
TAMPA - He hid in the bushes outside her home. He tried to run her off the road. He flattened her tires.
That's what Elalia Walker told a Hillsborough judge in May when she asked for - and was denied - court protection from Stanley F. Telfare.
On Thursday evening, the school secretary died after a week in a coma, her brain injured. Police have accused Telfare, 46, of first-degree murder in her death.
It sounded all too familiar to another Tampa woman.
"Oh no, no," said Verdell Howard, 75. "They need to do something with that man. They shouldn't have let him go. No.
"This could have been avoided if they would have just listened to me. Now that family will have to suffer like I've suffered."
In 1998, Cynthia Howard, a health assistant at Hillsborough High School, was fatally shot. Police said Howard and her boyfriend had struggled over a gun when it went off, killing her. Police ruled it an accident and sent the case to prosecutors for review.
Her boyfriend? Telfare, then a maintenance worker for the Tampa Police Department.
Howard's mom never believed it was an accident. She said she saw Telfare in a store downtown, and he ran the other way. She walked in her neighborhood and saw him passing by. She moved to another part of town.
In February, police reopened the case, part of a new unit devoted to cold cases.
Howard, who hadn't seen Telfare in years, heard about his arrest a week ago. At that time, Walker was in a coma.
Here's what police said happened:
A witness saw two people quarreling Oct. 11 at the Orange River Estates subdivision in Temple Terrace. The man hit the woman, then shoved her into a van and left. By the time police arrived, the van was gone.
Later that evening, Telfare brought Walker to her home. She was severely injured, and her family asked what happened. He told them Walker jumped from a van as they were driving, police said.
Walker was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where she died a week later, police said.
Police accused Telfare of murder on Friday. It's a first-degree charge because her injuries happened during the commission of another felony, kidnapping, said Temple Terrace police spokesman Michael Dunn.
In her request for a temporary injunction, Walker wrote that she and Telfare met in June 2006 when both worked at Blake High School. She was married, and worked as a secretary in the evening school. He was a custodian.
He gave her his phone number, and by September 2006 they were dating.
In January, they argued and he followed her to her husband's house, she wrote. Then he began to hide outside the house, she wrote.
When she applied for protective injunction she said that Telfare tried to choke her and screamed at her. She said Telfare twice threatened her with a gun.
Walker told school officials of her fear that Telfare would bring a gun to the school, records show. School officials searched his car and found nothing.
On May 9, Circuit Judge Cheryl K. Thomas dismissed a temporary injunction against Telfare. School officials warned the two to stay away from each other at work, but they could do little else, said school district spokesman Stephen Hegarty.
"We had a he-said/she-said on our hands," he said.
Another woman complained of violence from Telfare.
In 2005, police accused him of beating his then-girlfriend, Cheryl Milbry, with a car anti-theft club, records show. Telfare was arrested on charges of kidnapping and aggravated battery, but the charges were dropped after prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to contact Milbry, said Assistant State Attorney Mark Cox.
Milbry declined to comment.
Prosecutors said they are checking into Telfare's history.
"We're looking at Mr. Telfare's past behavior at this point," Cox said.
Verdell Howard said she could have predicted something like this.
"Well, to be honest with you, I've been looking for this to happen again," she said. "They said it was accidental, they were tussling over the gun.
"I don't believe it was an accident. I knew my daughter. My daughter was not a violent person."
Times researchers John Martin and Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at vansickle@sptimes.com