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The jury decided that he did not intend to kill victim when demanding money for crack cocaine.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 13, 2001
LARGO -- Annie Mae Stockton trusted her former neighbor and treated him like a grandson. So she let him into her St. Petersburg home without hesitation.
Reginald Bernard Coleman returned that trust, prosecutors say, by beating the 87-year-old woman to death with a Coke bottle so he could steal her money for a crack cocaine binge.
The jurors who convicted Coleman of first-degree murder last week took 15 minutes on Tuesday to recommend to a judge that Coleman didn't deserve to die for the killing.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Phil Federico, who must give the jury recommendation great weight, then sentenced Coleman to life in prison without parole for the June 14, 1997, murder.
"We didn't think he intended to kill her when he went into her home," jury foreperson Magdalen DiGesare said in an interview, explaining why the jury rejected the death penalty. "He went in for money. And things got out of hand."
"I'm very happy," said Coleman's mother, Letha Gray. "I know my son didn't do this. But he'll be fine."
Coleman, 32, and his family were neighbors of Stockton for years before he moved to Atlanta. But Coleman returned to St. Petersburg in 1997 to turn himself in after learning he was wanted for a probation violation.
Coleman wanted one last crack binge before going to jail, prosecutors Thane Covert and Bill Loughery told jurors. Broke and unable to buy any, he went to Stockton's home on 13th Avenue S, tied her up and beat her to death.
At some point, Stockton's 70-year-old nephew, Willie Woodard, arrived with groceries. Coleman, prosecutors said, knocked him unconscious.
Woodard survived the blow but did not see who hit him. Coleman was convicted of attempted second-degree murder for hitting Woodard and sentenced to a concurrent 15 years for the charge.
Coleman escaped with up to $3,000 before eventually surrendering on the probation violation and getting a 15-year prison sentence.
Meantime, the murder went unsolved for two years.
While in prison, Coleman bragged to a fellow inmate that he had gotten away with a murder. Later, he told his sister he was in the house when Stockton was killed but said an accomplice did it, the sister testified.
Defense lawyers Michael Schwartzberg, Sonny Im and Richard Watts said Coleman wasn't involved in the killing, pointing to unidentified fingerprints in the house.
Jury: Lust for crack led man to murder (June 9, 2001)
Woman's '97 murder solved, say police (August 27, 1999)