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Grieving father of a slain son asks, why?
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2001 Everything happens for a reason. Even calamity is part of some great plan. Well-meaning people say this. They intend to be soothing. They would say it to Hamilton Natal. Natal is a hemisphere away, in Brazil. He sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago. He asked me the kind of question that could be answered with everything happens for a reason. "My son was very precious to me, a true companion, a good brother," Natal wrote. "He used to go to Mass every Sunday with me. "His death was a terrible shock to all those who loved him, especially the way it occurred." This is how it occurred: On the night of last May 12, Natal's 23-year-old son Eduardo drove to a house in Carrollwood to deliver a pizza. As Eduardo stepped out of his car, somebody shot him once in the head and stole his car. It took the police only two days to find the man they believe fired the shot. They arrested Earl Hinson, who had grown up in the Carrollwood house years before. Police also arrested Harold Wolf, who they said had been Hinson's accomplice. Hinson and Wolf also were charged with a second violent crime that happened only hours after Eduardo Natal's killing. The next morning, police say, Hinson and Wolf tried to rob another pizza shop in Carrollwood. The owner was shot 10 times but miraculously survived. Hinson and Wolf didn't know Eduardo Natal, didn't know about the girlfriend he had in Brazil, his desire to marry her. They didn't know that Eduardo Natal's parents were divorced but that he had kept close to both of them, and that his father Hamilton would ask this question: Why my son? If Hinson and Wolf did kill Eduardo Natal, they were not very bright about it. They dribbled evidence everywhere. A man at a gun shop identified Hinson and Wolf as the buyers of $40 worth of .22-caliber shells the day Natal was killed. The receipt was found in Hinson's bedroom. The police found .22 casings at both shootings. They found Eduardo Natal's car in the parking lot of an apartment complex where Hinson's father lived. Hinson and Wolf were caught on videotape at the second pizza shop as they opened fire. One of the owners recognized Hinson by the peculiar way he walked. Maybe Hinson and Wolf were hung up on Chicago-style pizza. Eduardo Natal worked for a place called Windy City Pizza. Wolf had once worked there. Both he and Hinson had worked at the second pizza shop, named for another Chicago landmark, The Loop. Hinson and Wolf have pleaded not guilty. A motion will be heard on Friday, asking the defendants to give blood samples. Hinson's lawyer, Matt Farmer, believes prosecutors want to try to match Hinson's or Wolf's blood with blood found in a car linked to the crime. Otherwise, all he would say was that Earl Hinson was a fantastic kid. Some kid. He's 22. Wolf is 27. The prosecutor, Jay Pruner, won't discuss the case, or the still-elusive motive. The trial was to begin in late May. Now it's scheduled for the end of July. Hamilton Natal will have to wait still longer for what answers there are. When people tell me everything happens for a reason, I get angry. If the world is good, what lets in such accidental cruelty as what was done to Eduardo Natal? Did he die to teach the people who loved him to better appreciate life? Did he die so that the men accused would be forced to face themselves? I tried to answer Hamilton Natal's e-mail. For some reason, it would not go through. This is just as well. For there was nothing I could tell Hamilton Natal. Nothing.
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