TAMPA -- Jurors will hear opening statements this morning in the federal trial of Audley Evans, former executive director of the Tampa Housing Authority, who was indicted on corruption charges in April.

Evans, who headed the agency from 1988 to 1996, is charged with 92 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, and is accused of misappropriating $4.5-million in housing authority funds.

If convicted on all counts, Evans faces a possible sentence of 975 years in prison and $27.5-million in fines.

Also being tried before U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. are Dr. Patrick Watson and C. Hayward Chapman, a Tampa developer.

Prosecutors say Evans, Watson and Chapman schemed to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by subverting the bidding process at the Tampa Housing Authority. According to the indictments, Watson and Chapman paid kickbacks to Evans for housing authority contracts.

Man killed with bat during fight identified

TAMPA -- Police have identified the man killed during an argument Friday on Hyacinth Avenue as 34-year-old Kenneth Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was arguing about money with 34-year-old Peter Alexander Barrett at a duplex the men shared at 10116 Hyacinth Ave. when Barrett struck Gonzalez on the back of the head several times with a baseball bat, authorities say. Gonzalez died at the scene.

Police say Barrett then called police, and told them the two had been drinking when the fight occurred. He was charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail.

Man held in attack on girlfriend

ST. PETERSBURG -- A dispute between a St. Petersburg couple early Monday morning sent the girlfriend to the hospital and the boyfriend to jail.

Police said Derrick Brantley, 24, shot Amanda Windham, 17, in the right leg shortly before 3 a.m. after punching her and burning her with a cigarette at the Plaza 5 Avenue apartments, 441 33rd St. N.

Windham told police the incident began when Brantley accused her of having an affair with her brother's friend.

He then threw items in the living room and punched her in the right leg, police said.

She went to the bathroom and began to smoke a cigarette, but he took the cigarette and used it to burn her left arm, police said. Windham said Brantley told her he did this because she is five months pregnant.

She told police that as their 18-month-old baby lay sleeping in a bedroom,Brantley picked up a handgun in the kitchen and played with the gun, repeatedly dry-firing it.

When he dry-fired the gun at her head, she began crying and laid her head in her hands, police said. She told officers that she did not see him when he fired and hit her in the leg.

Brantley initially denied shooting or hitting Windham, police said. But when confronted with Windham's statements, he told police he did not think the gun was loaded.

Police said the gun was stolen from Manatee County. Brantley said he had bought the gun from a friend and did not know it was stolen.

An officer found cocaine in a jacket, and Brantley said the drugs were his.

Brantley is being held without bail at Pinellas County Jail on charges of aggravated domestic battery and $5,000 bail for possession of cocaine.

Fire traced to cigarette

ST. PETERSBURG -- Fire and rescue workers responded to smoke at a Menorah House apartment Monday morning after a cigarette apparently ignited oxygen in the room.

According to fire officials, Betty Lewin, 61, was lighting up a cigarette in her apartment at 250 58th St. N as her oxygen mask was lying next to her.

When the flame hit the oxygen-enriched environment, some clothing and carpet ignited, Fire Department spokesman Lt. Chris Bengivengo said.

Smoke filled the apartment, but the clothes and carpet only smoldered.

Lewin was taken to Palms of Pasadena Hospital for smoke inhalation and a minor burn on one foot.

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