Investor pays ultimate price on trip

A retired Lutz lawyer is killed trying to possession of a bakery in Honduras.

By TIM GRANT

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2000

LUTZ -- Lawyer Albert Paul Lima made his fortune as an investor who -- among other things -- got in on the ground floor of Burger King and foresaw the growing demand for rental storage units.

Friends say Lima had a gift for making good investments and thought he had stumbled on another great idea when he loaned money to a Honduran businessman 10 years ago to open one of the only commercial bakeries on the resort island of Roatan.

Things went well with the original borrower, but when the man died six years ago, Lima was forced to deal with the sons. Regular mortgage payments weren't being made, and Lima suspected he was not getting his share of the company's profits.

He left Tampa on Feb. 5 for Honduras to take control of the business but never returned.

As Lima tried to evict the five brothers who operated Coleman Bakery in Coxen Hole, he was beaten and abducted from the building, Honduran police said. His captors drove Lima to a mountain and shot him twice in the head, execution style.

Four days later, a search party found his body in an advanced stage of decomposition. Police have said in published reports that they suspect the murder was committed by two of the brothers who ran the bakery. One also was found dead; the other was still at large last week.

"They thought if they got rid of him, they could get their bakery back," said Tampa lawyer Larry Scott, who helped find Lima's body. "It was partly hatred too, because he had taken back the bakery they felt was theirs. Their father was a good man, but the sons did not want to repay the debt."

Lima, 57, practiced commercial and corporate law for 28 years with Dixon Shear Brown & Lima in downtown Tampa, a firm that no longer exists. In 1990 he campaigned unsuccessfully for a Circuit Court judge seat. He retired from law two years ago to manage his investments, Scott said.

Former law partner Tom Brown met Lima 30 years ago when Lima was studying at Stetson Law School and working as a law clerk for the firm. Ultimately, Lima became a partner, a business associate and the closest friend Brown said he ever had.

"I'm close to my two brothers, but I loved Al very dearly," Brown said. "I had advised my wife, Kitty, that if something should happen to me she could depend on Al."

Lima left a wife and two children behind in Lutz. The family has asked that no other details be published because of lingering concerns surrounding Lima's murder.

Roatan, a Caribbean resort island, had been a favorite vacation destination for Lima and Scott. At least once a year, Scott said, they traveled to Honduras to dive, fish and get away from the trappings of corporate America.

Lima was not always able to leave business behind.

During his 1990 election campaign, Lima took a fax machine to the island, Scott remembers.

"We went there to get away from phones, faxes, secretaries and clients and all of a sudden he was there campaigning for judge," Scott said. "I asked him if he was going to relax and enjoy the island or if he was going to turn the place into a campaign headquarters."

Lima lost the election. His financial disclosure forms showed that of all the candidates, Lima would have given up the most financially had he won.

His tax return showed that he earned more than $500,000 in capital gains, mostly from stock trades in 1988. In 1990, Lima's net worth was nearly $1-million, with extensive stock holdings and partnerships.

While his law practice mainly consisted of low-key real estate and corporate law, Lima made headlines for his legal work in the 1996 bankruptcy case of WTSP-Ch. 10 sportscaster Al Keck.

As a retired lawyer, Lima consumed himself in investment opportunities worldwide, Scott said. In China, he was looking into opportunities to sell medical equipment.

But for years he dealt with nagging legal problems concerning the Honduran bakery.

Scott said Lima filed a default lawsuit on the property around 1994. With that action, he foreclosed on the mortgage. Lima won in every court in Honduras, but the brothers appealed every ruling, Scott said.

Two years ago, Lima received a writ of possession, which gave him title to the property. But again, Scott said the brothers appealed. About four or five months ago, Lima's ruling was upheld, giving him absolute title to and possession of the bakery.

Finally, he thought, he could return to Roatan and take possession of his property.

But it wasn't that simple.

"We're always concerned that people may come to a place such as the Honduras and act as if they are still in the U.S., and that's not the case," said Greg Adams, public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras.

"People are attracted to the opportunity to do business in Honduras, but it's a different environment. They should have that in mind. People should exercise caution when entering business deals and legal contracts outside the U.S. They're not in Kansas anymore."

According to testimony from U.S. citizen John Wade Herring, who was with Lima in the bakery and was injured in the abduction, Lima's kidnappers were two brothers who ran the bakery.

Scott said Lima had hired Herring to perform maintenance and carpentry work at the business. After the brothers began to beat up Herring, Lima went into an office to call the police, but was hit over the head and forced in the back seat of a car.

Scott said he received a fax on Tuesday, Feb. 8 from Lima's attorney in Honduras saying Lima had been abducted. Soon afterward, Scott said, he and other friends of Lima's received other calls from the island.

"We figured they took him and beat him up and he'd come back saying how horrible it was, but when he wasn't around on Wednesday morning, we knew it was more serious than that," Scott said.

That is when people who knew Lima began calling anyone they knew in Washington, D.C. Four days later, Honduran police were prompted to search for a body. Among the search party were Scott and Scott's cousin Bill Yanger, who arrived on the island Feb. 11.

The following morning at 10:20 a.m. Scott and Yanger discovered Lima's body hidden in vegetation. Medical examiners were able to identify the body by using prints from one of the hands.

A day earlier, the body of Byron Coleman, one of Lima's abductors, washed up on a rocky shore next to French Harbor. The other brother suspected in the abduction, Oral Coleman, was being sought by Honduran police, according to news reports from Honduras.

"It used to be a beautiful place to get away," Scott said. "But today it's not a beautiful place."

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