Family calls for justice after wounded boy dies

His family demands to know exactly who did what and why.

By AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001

TAMPA -- Eric Wright died at noon Tuesday from the gunshot wound he suffered New Year's Eve, allegedly at the hand of one of his friends.

With his parents at his side and other family and friends holding a vigil, the 15-year-old Armwood High 10th-grader was taken off the respirator that had kept him alive since he was taken to Tampa General Hospital early Monday.

"Eric was a very caring and loving kid," said his mother, Peggy Wright, through tears at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. "Hopefully now he'll be able to help lots of other people" by being an organ donor, she said.

Wright's family members, however, also want justice. They want the teenagers involved in the shooting to face murder charges, and they question the role of the mother of the boy accused of pulling the trigger.

Prosecutors intend to try the three boys as adults.

Authorities said James Hargrove, 16, shot Wright shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday as he played with a gun in his bedroom at 5440 Trail Drive in Seffner while his mother was in another room.

Two other teens present in the room, 15-year-old Andrew Hiers and 16-year-old Billy Walker, then helped Hargrove push Wright's body out a window and dragged him face down to nearby woods, where they abandoned him, authorities say.

The shooting has bizarre parallels from more than a decade ago.

James Hargrove's father, William, is in prison for killing his estranged wife's boyfriend, Jerome Smith, in the same mobile home where Wright was shot. William Hargrove and his wife, Sari, then dragged his body through an orange grove and abandoned it, records show.

Mrs. Hargrove was convicted of being an accessory to first-degree murder and was placed on two years of probation for the November 1997 murder. Hargrove, who shot Smith to death after finding him nude in his estranged wife's bed, was sentenced to life in prison in 1988.

James Hargrove, then 3, heard his father shoot Smith and began crying, records show. Mrs. Hargrove put him in his sister's room and told them not to leave.

A few days later, the Hargroves drove their children to Georgia, where they left them on the front porch of a relative's home at 6 a.m., a note tucked inside 12-year-old daughter Jennifer's belongings asking that they be taken care of.

The two shootings have another parallel: Like Smith, Wright was shot in the right side of his head.

Wright was discovered by a neighbor and his friend, and flown to TGH. The three teens then fled and were captured hours later at an abandoned house in a nearby orange grove. The .22-caliber revolver used in the shooting has not been found.

The circumstances surrounding Wright's shooting, along with the parallels between it and Jerome Smith's murder, have convinced Wright's relatives that his death was no accident. They also don't believe the boys ever intended to call for help as they later claimed.

"They dragged my boy face down along the ground. He had dirt in his nose, his eyes, his braces, his ears," Wright's uncle, Dale Smith, told the St. Petersburg Times.

"You can't tell me at that point they cared about him."

Because the bullet entered the base of Wright's skull from behind his head, the family does not believe Hargrove's story that he was waving the gun in the air at the time it fired, Smith said.

"It makes me believe this was murder," he said.

Smith and other relatives also question whether Mrs. Hargrove, who now goes by Sari Mallary, was involved in helping her son cover up Wright's shooting. "Did the mother know about it and just say she didn't know about it?" Smith asked. "She tried to cover up a murder once before."

The teens told deputies they had been smoking marijuana and drinking beer and whiskey before the shooting. Smith, however, said blood tests showed that Wright had not smoked marijuana and had only a trace amount of alcohol in his blood.

Smith said the family plans to meet with prosecutors about the charges against the teens, who are being held in a juvenile detention center.

Hargrove was charged with attempted manslaughter Monday. With Wright's death, the charge was changed to manslaughter Tuesday evening, authorities said. Hiers and Walker were arrested on charges of being accessories.

Wright's relatives have established the Eric David Wright Family Relief Fund to help pay funeral expenses. Donations can be made at any Bank of America branch. Funeral plans were not complete.

Peggy Wright, who shook with emotion during a brief news conference, said she had a message for teenagers: "Please be careful, and give your mom a kiss tonight."

- Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com.

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