Fire suspect guilty on felony gun charge

By DAVID KARP

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001

TAMPA -- For nearly a year, the fires erupted in one home after another in Tampa Heights.

Then, police arrested Calvin Reed, 31, as he pedaled his bicycle away from a burning building in the middle of the night.

On Tuesday, a jury found Reed guilty of a felony that could put him in prison for 30 years, but the case had little to do with fires. Prosecutors charged Reed, a convicted felon, with carrying a firearm.

Police found an unloaded .25-caliber handgun in his pocket as he left a small blaze that started in an unoccupied building on E Seventh Avenue on June 11, 2000.

Reed's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Melody Dietsch, told jurors that Reed had taken the gun away from his brother to keep him from using it that night. Reed's brother had gotten into an argument at a bar near Nebraska Avenue, she said.

Surely, the Legislature didn't intend to make it a crime for Reed to safeguard a gun to keep his brother out of danger, she argued.

It took jurors about 10 minutes to find Reed guilty. Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett will sentence him Monday.

Prosecutors plan to bring arson charges against Reed for the fire on E Seventh Avenue. Authorities said they saw Reed leaving the blaze and matched several footprints near the burning building to his tennis shoes.

They also found a lighter on Reed, who smelled of smoke, they said.

According to a Fire Department report, Reed told authorities he had nothing to do with the blaze. "Mom always told me, "Don't play with fire because you'll get burned,' " he said, according to the report.

Fire officials continue to investigate about 40 unsolved arsons in Tampa Heights, Fire Department spokesman Bill Wade said Tuesday. Officials think more than one person might have been starting the fires.

"It remains an active and ongoing investigation," Wade said. "There is definitely some items we hope to tie together."

- David Karp can be reached at (813) 226-3376.

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