Vehicle is linked to fatal hit-run

Authorities think the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo at a Daytona Beach body shop is the one that hit and killed a Largo cyclist, but who was driving it?

By CHRIS TISCH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 6, 2001

LARGO -- The man who came to the Daytona Beach body shop looked nervous.

He refused to answer questions and stuttered when asked his name. He wanted to pay cash and he wanted no insurance claim filed on the $3,000 in damages he wanted repaired, the shop foreman recalled.

The customer asked that the damage to the front of the maroon and gray Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo be fixed, while older damage on the passenger-side quarter-panel be left alone.

"It just seemed like he was trying to pull something past somebody," said Shawn Van Lancker, the body shop foreman. "I thought it was stolen and he was dumping it on us."

Van Lancker dialed Daytona Beach police, triggering a chain of events that brought Largo police traffic homicide investigators to the body shop.

There, they found the vehicle that they suspect struck and killed 39-year-old Stephen Gunter on May 18. Gunter of Largo died after being hit by a maroon and gray Laredo as he pedaled his bicycle across Belcher Road near Ulmerton Road.

"We are very confident this is the vehicle that struck and killed Mr. Gunter," said Detective Steve McMullen.

Largo investigators found blood on the front bumper of the Laredo. Damage on the Laredo matched pieces of a mirror and headlight that broke off when Gunter was struck.

"It was like putting a puzzle together," said Largo police Officer George Edmiston.

Investigators traced the vehicle to Sandra Brand, a 31-year-old Pinellas resident who is a top manager at the Red Lion Restaurant and Pub in Indian Rocks Beach.

Police say Brand told them she had leased the vehicle for the Red Lion and the business' owner, Mark Wicks, because he has poor credit.

Police had previously received an anonymous tip that on the morning after Gunter was killed Wicks was seen with a Jeep Cherokee Laredo, police said. The anonymous tipster said Wicks, of 2019 Church Creek Point Road, Largo, was seen clearing his garage, then pulling a maroon and gray Laredo inside and shutting the garage door, according to police records.

Police say they questioned Wicks and Brand about the Laredo on May 23, but they refused to cooperate and would not provide the vehicle to police.

Neither Wicks nor Brand could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Jeffrey Brown, Wicks' attorney, said just because Wicks is suspected of bringing the Laredo to a body shop across the state doesn't mean he knew it was involved in a hit and run.

"To me, the issue is: Who was driving the vehicle? And I'm not aware of any evidence that he was driving the vehicle," Brown said. "There are other suspects that they should be looking at. They shouldn't be focusing on just my client.

"It's not registered to him," he added.

Brand's attorney, Robert Eckard, said Brand will speak with police only if granted full immunity from prosecution.

"We're not going to speak or make a statement until she's offered full statutory immunity," he said. "I don't know who was behind the wheel at this point. There are several suspects."

Two days after speaking with Brand and Wicks, police put out a statewide bulletin for the Laredo. That's when they discovered it had been found at the Daytona Beach body shop.

After talking to body shop employees, investigators mixed one of Wicks' driver's license pictures into a photo lineup of men and asked Van Lancker, the body shop foreman, if any of the photos looked like the man who had brought the Laredo to the shop.

Van Lancker picked out Wicks' photograph.

But police have not been able to determine who was behind the wheel the night Gunter was killed. Edmiston said the driver blasted through a red light at a high speed before hitting Gunter.

The driver could face a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving death, or even a vehicular homicide charge, Edmiston said.

Police said the case is still under investigation, which includes forensic work outside and inside the Laredo that they hope will pinpoint who was driving when Gunter was hit.

Blood taken from the front of the Laredo also has been sent to a state lab, where it will be compared with DNA taken from Gunter at his autopsy.

Van Lancker said the man at the shop with the Laredo -- who identified himself as Mark Wild from Indian Rocks Beach -- told an employee that he had struck a deer. The Laredo at that time had a recently replaced windshield, and a new headlight was in a box inside the vehicle. The headlight had been purchased in Gainesville, Van Lancker said.

Police also seized from the inside of the Laredo six empty Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles, along with an empty Michelob Light beer bottle.

Largo investigators say they have presented evidence to prosecutors and are hoping charges will be forthcoming.

McMullen said he couldn't say what charges they are seeking or whom they would be against.

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