Tampa Bay briefs

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2001

Missing French woman found safe

LARGO -- A French woman reported missing Wednesday by her Largo relatives was found Thursday night at Coastal Gas Station on Park Boulevard.

Nicole Kirsch, 56, who speaks only French and was here for a wedding, was reported missing by her family 4 p.m. Wednesday.

She had walked to Publix at Rosery Road and Missouri Avenue. Kirsch told Largo police she got turned around and could not find her way home.

She spent Wednesday night on a park bench and continued walking Thursday before she was found about 9 p.m.

Police shooting is ruled justified

PINELLAS PARK -- State Attorney Bernie McCabe has ruled justified the shooting by police officers of a man standing in his yard with a loaded shotgun.

McCabe said the officers' lives were in danger.

Ronald Sexton, a Vietnam veteran and the winner of a million-dollar lottery prize two years ago, was drinking whiskey and holding a loaded shotgun in front of his house April 2.

After a 45-minute standoff, a police officer on scene persuaded Sexton, 48, to put down the shotgun and step away from it. Then, two officers quickly approached from the side of the house.

"He was startled," Pinellas Park police Officer Scott Golczewski, one of the officers who moved in, said in a statement to authorities. "He picked up the gun, and he lifted it up and started coming down with it."

Police officers fired 13 shots, hitting Sexton three times and fatally wounding him, according to investigative records.

Gatorade bottles to be tested

ST. PETERSBURG -- Federal authorities will analyze Gatorade bottles taken from a gas station because a St. Petersburg woman became ill after drinking from one of the bottles Friday, police said.

Tawana Fowler of St. Petersburg bought a 20-ounce bottle of "Fierce Lime" Gatorade from the Marathon gas station at 1755 Ninth St. S, police said. As she drove off, she took a drink and noticed a strong odor coming from the bottle.

Fowler started to drive back to the station to complain when she became ill and drove herself to Bayfront Medical Center's emergency room, where she was treated and released.

A police officer went to the gas station, opened a bottle of the same flavor Gatorade and smelled a strong petroleum odor coming from it, said St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa.

The officer took five bottles and notified the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said it would analyze the bottles Monday.

Student charged with making bomb threat

TAMPA -- A Hillsborough High School student has been charged with making a bomb threat on a school computer.

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said the 16-year-old used the computer to write the threat and printed it out in the school's library about 9:25 a.m. Friday. The youth, who is not named because of his age, admitted to making the threat.

He was charged with a felony count of threatening to use an explosive device, Durkin said, and taken to the Juvenile Detention Center.

Mother and daughter guilty of buying cocaine

TAMPA -- A mother and her daughter have been convicted of buying 10 kilograms of cocaine from federal undercover agents in Tampa.

Tonica Tonise Jenkins and her mother, Tonica Clement Jenkins, claimed to be working as confidential informants for the FBI when they purchased the cocaine in July 2000 with $70,000 in cash, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday.

Each was convicted Friday of conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Steve Cole.

Both now await sentencing on the drug convictions, which carry mandatory minimum prison sentences of 10 years and a fine of up to $4-million.

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