PANAMA CITY -- A former medical examiner convicted of killing his wife with an injection of a paralyzing drug nearly 10 years ago will be sentenced April 16.

Dr. William Sybers, 68, could be sentenced to die, but the Pensacola jury that convicted him last month recommended life in prison without parole for at least 25 years.

Sybers was district medical examiner when his wife, Kay, 52, died in 1991 at their Panama City Beach home. He ordered no autopsy, saying he was abiding by his wife's wishes. He changed his mind after the body was embalmed. The autopsy failed to determine the cause of death, but new lab testing in 1999 disclosed evidence of succinylcholine, a potentially lethal muscle relaxant used in surgery.

Sybers was accused of killing her so he could marry his mistress and avoid a divorce that could have cost him half of $6-million he and his first wife held in joint assets.

Justices order new trial in 1996 murder case

TALLAHASSEE -- A death row inmate condemned for the 1996 murders of an Air Force technician and her baby must be tried again, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Lamar Brooks, 28, from Chester, Pa., a Persian Gulf war veteran, was sent to death row in September 1998 for the murders of 23-year-old Rachel Carlson and her 3-month-old daughter, Alexis Stuart. Brooks' cousin, Walker Davis, was also convicted of the murders but sentenced to life in prison.

The bodies of the mother and daughter were found in Carlson's running car in Crestview in 1996. Carlson, a hospital technician with the Air Force from Aloha, Ore., was stabbed 75 times and beaten and choked. The baby was stabbed once in the heart.

Brooks' conviction and death sentence must be vacated because the trial judge allowed improper hearsay evidence at his trial, the Supreme Court held.

$35,000 reward offered in man's disappearance

BOCA RATON -- A $35,000 reward is being offered for help in finding an executive last heard from when he called a co-worker to say his car had broken down on Interstate 95 but two strangers were coming to his aid.

James Cuddy, 50, of Fort Lauderdale used his cell phone to call the co-worker Tuesday about 10 a.m. to ask him to pick him up, according to police.

But then he told the co-worker that two men were approaching the car to help. He hung up and hasn't been heard from since. Cuddy's 1998 green Jeep Cherokee with a Virginia license plate also is missing, police said.

The man's wife, Darlene Cuddy, said she would meet with detectives today to discuss leads.

Cuddy lives in Fort Lauderdale with a son, 21. His wife and other son, 19, live in Manassas, Va., and had planned to join him in Florida once their house was sold.

Body identified as missing tourist from New York

MIAMI BEACH -- A body found in a field has been identified as that of a vacationer from New York, police said Thursday.

A DNA test confirmed that the victim was Elenora Sulaymanov, 19, of Brooklyn, who had been missing since soon after she arrived here nearly three weeks ago. She was last seen leaving the Miami Beach apartment where she was staying to walk to the drugstore.

Miami-Dade police said she died from a blow to the head. No suspects have been identified.

A farmer discovered the woman's body in a field in northwest Miami-Dade County on March 27.

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Lucy Morgan

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