Police pick up running man, find roommate dead

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 19, 2000

TAMPA -- Police were called to a northeast Tampa street Thursday morning to investigate a complaint about a shirtless man running though yards and trying to enter houses.

When officers arrived, they found 23-year-old Johnny Scott Lankford in the middle of the street in an "excited" state, a police report said. His jeans and face were bloodied.

Officers picked up Lankford, entered his house at 10907 Arden Ave. and found his roommate dead, Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said.

Police would not say how 35-year-old Jon Kittles died, but a neighbor said police came to his yard searching for a gun.

Lankford, who told police he works as a sales manager for a St. Petersburg mortgage company, was arrested for possession of cocaine after police found 1.5 grams of rock cocaine in his pants, police said. He was in jail Thursday night on $5,000 bail. Police would not say whether he is a suspect.

Jury to decide merits of DNA in murder trial

TAMPA -- Since his arrest last year, Franklin A. Smith has maintained that someone else killed Eileen Mangold in September 1989. That someone is likely Dale Carpenter, he argues.

Carpenter frequented the store from which Mangold was abducted and lived in the Riverview neighborhood where Mangold's car was found, Smith's attorneys argued this week.

He also looked like a composite sketch drawn from witness statements right after the killing, they said, and he gave investigators a fake name and remained a suspect for years.

So why isn't Carpenter sitting at the defense table?

His semen wasn't found on the victim's blouse. The semen matched Smith's DNA profile, a profile that only one in 57-trillion people would possess, experts said.

Today, 12 jurors will begin deciding Smith's fate, much of which will come down to how credible they find the science of DNA testing. A conviction on first-degree murder could lead Smith, 53, to death row.

Garrity named county's chief environmentalist

TAMPA -- Few thought Roger Stewart, who ran the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission for more than 30 years, could ever be replaced.

No one had Stewart's name recognition, no one had his popular support, and no one had his presence when he blasted polluters on the evening news.

No one until Thursday.

The commission on Thursday named Rick Garrity to be Stewart's replacement.

Garrity, 56, will oversee a $10-million annual budget and 160 employees. He must still negotiate his salary, which could be as high as $110,000 a year.

Raffle to benefit family of Bayflite crash victims

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Thomas Kinkade Beach Drive Gallery will raffle a lithograph to benefit the family of three people killed last month in the crash of a Bayflite helicopter.

The gallery is donating "A Peaceful Time," an 18- by 24-inch framed canvas by Thomas Kinkade, according to a news release. Tickets are $5 each, or five for $20. The proceeds will be given to the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation to benefit the families of those killed.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.