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When investigating the overdose that killed a 17-year-old man and hospitalized his girlfriend, deputies also found a suspect in an unrelated shooting.
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 5, 2001
HOLIDAY -- A 17-year-old died and his 19-year-old girlfriend was hospitalized when they overdosed on drugs in their home Friday morning, authorities said.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office isn't releasing any information on the type of drugs that killed Matthew Frederick or injured Christina Preble.
Deputies were called to the couple's home at 3344 Jackson Drive in Holiday at about 1 a.m. Preble, who deputies say had also been drinking, was semiconscious. She was taken to Community Hospital in New Port Richey, authorities said. A hospital spokeswoman refused to release her condition Friday night.
Nine hours later, friends knocked on the couple's door and discovered Frederick dead.
The Pasco-Pinellas medical examiner will perform an autopsy and blood tests on Frederick's body to determine exactly what killed him.
Frederick and Preble had a son together. The baby boy turned nine months old on Friday.
Some neighbors said the couple fought often and had loud parties. Their friends said they were a good couple who worked hard to support each other and their son.
"Matthew was a real cool guy," said Joel Wallace, 17. "He always had your back in a situation."
Coincidentally, while deputies were investigating Frederick's death, they found a man wanted in a recent drive-by shooting.
Jerry Haddock, 23, was wanted on an attempted homicide charge. He was a close friend of Frederick's, neighbors said, and was at the house when deputies arrived.
But the overdoses and the shooting are unrelated, officials said.
"It does not appear that the drug overdose victims were involved in the shooting," said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
The shooting happened Tuesday in a parking lot at the corner of U.S. 19 and Sunray Drive in Holiday.
According to sheriff's reports, Shaun C. Suman and Greg M. Rice agreed to meet for a fistfight at the Tahitian Center, on the corner of U.S. 19 and Sunray Drive in Holiday.
According to a Pasco County sheriff's report, Rice was upset because Suman was giving his sister problems -- Suman used to date Rice's sister -- and the two planned to settle the matter with a fight.
Rice told Deputy Jeremy Colhouer that he and two friends arrived in the parking lot of the Tahitian Center first. When he saw Suman's Nissan Ultima drive in, Rice got out of his car, the report said.
Rice and his two friends said that someone in the Nissan aimed a shotgun at their Mitsubishi Montero and fired. Suman was driving the car, witnesses said, and another man, Jerry Haddock, was in the passenger seat.
The shot missed Rice, and hit the back driver's side quarter panel of the Mitsubishi, deputies said.
A second shot was fired from the Nissan, and it missed Rice's friend Craig Burns by about six inches, said the report. No one was hurt.
Deputies said Haddock fired the gun, which was a sawed-off shotgun, according to a report written by Detective James Sessa.
Rice and his friends called deputies after the shooting, and on Thursday, Suman was arrested.
Suman, 21, of 593 Player Drive, New Port Richey, was charged with three counts of attempted murder. He is being held without bail at the county jail in Land O'Lakes.
Haddock, 23, of 3533 Wilson Drive, Holiday, was also charged with three counts of attempted homicide. He is being held without bail at the county jail.
Suman told authorities that someone in Rice's car pulled a gun first, and that his passenger then fired two shots with his own gun.