Testimony opens in road rage trial

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2000

LARGO -- Mike Daniel saw the men approaching with shovels that they held like baseball bats. But he couldn't believe they intended to hit anybody with them, not over a minor traffic dispute.

"Human nature tells you they're not going to use the shovels" to hit anyone, Daniel, 28, said.

But during the first day of testimony in the Tarpon Springs road rage trial Thursday, Daniel said he watched in horror as the men angry over the slow driving of another vehicle approached him, his friend Luis Collado and his two brothers, James and Jody Daniel.

One man swung a shovel like a baseball bat, hitting Collado squarely on the back of the head, Daniel testified.

"He just fell face first, lifeless," Daniel said.

Jody Daniel, 31, dropped to a knee to check on Collado, 33. "Lou, Lou, Lou! Are you okay?" Mike Daniel heard him say.

The men savagely attacked Jody Daniel with shovels and kicks, he said.

"They were like animals hitting him at will," Mike Daniel testified.

Collado and Jody Daniel suffered fractured skulls and brain injuries, from which their families say they are still recovering.

Three men are charged with attempted second-degree murder for the March 31, 1999 attack: Theofilos Mamouzelos, 20, Christopher Stamas, 19, and Michael Saroukos, 24, all of Tarpon Springs.

Each faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted at a trial expected to last into the weekend.

Collado was driving as he and the three Daniel brothers headed to Anclote Road to help fix a Tarpon man's boat. Mike Daniel testified that as they searched for the address, they passed a marina. Collado slowed, Daniel said, as Daniel pointed out a 30-foot boat in dry dock he had recently piloted.

That's when the three defendants driving behind began tooting their horn, angry that Collado's Chevy Blazer had slowed.

The two groups of men began exchanging obscene gestures, Daniel said. But he soon forgot the pickup.

Daniel said Collado mistakenly pulled onto a dirt road he thought would lead to the boat they were to repair. The pickup pulled up behind, Daniel said. He said he soon realized a fight was afoot.

He got out of the vehicle, he testified, and approached Mamouzelos, Stamas and Saroukos.

"What's your f---ing problem!" Mike Daniel said he yelled. "Want to fight? Want to fight? I'll kick your ass!"

He said when the three defendants realized they were outnumbered four to three, one of them said, "Okay, hey, we don't want any trouble."

But things soon got out of hand as a verbal battle turned violent, he said. Mamouzelos and Stamas grabbed shovels from the bed of their pickup and attacked, Daniel testified.

A witness called out that she was calling the police, and the three defendants fled, Daniel said.

After a defense attorney pressed him on the number of times his brother was hit, Daniel angrily answered, "Let me count the bruises. His ankles. His thigh. His back. Both sides of his face. His head. I don't know, you figure it out.

"Would you sit and count if your brother is being hit with a shovel?"

Prosecutor Bob Lewis said the three men in the pickup felt "insulted" at a driver who would move so slowly, so they lashed out in a merciless attack.

"They accomplished their purpose," Lewis said. "They took care of the guy who drove so slowly he insulted them."

But defense attorneys portray Collado and the Daniel brothers as aggressors and said the defendants used shovels as a last resort only to defend themselves and get away.

And the shovels, the defense says, were not swung excessively hard or repeatedly.

Denis de Vlaming, who represents Stamas, said Collado encouraged a fight, pulling his Blazer over at the first available spot.

He described the Daniel brothers and Collado as "like a pack of wolves" who cornered one of the defendants, Saroukos, and were about to beat him badly before Mamouzelos and Stamas intervened with shovels.

"Could they have run?" de Vlaming asked jurors in his opening statement. "I suppose they could have. But (Saroukos) would have gotten it really bad."

James Daniel pulled a portable hand drill from the Blazer, later acknowledging he carried it like a gun, he told police, to stop the shovel beating. But de Vlaming said the three defendants thought it was a real gun, making them all the more mindful to use the shovels to get away.

"All they wanted to do was get out," de Vlaming said. "But this pack of wolves wasn't going to allow them to do it."

No witness said Saroukos swung a shovel, though prosecutors say he kicked the victims repeatedly.

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