Tampabay: Killer, girlfriend made pact

DeJesus was the only one who followed through. He shot himself once in the head with the same Mac 11 semiautomatic gun he used Friday morning to hold up a bank and kill Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero.

Gutierrez walked out of the apartment and into police custody.

She appeared before a judge Saturday and said nothing as the first-degree murder, armed robbery and armed kidnapping charges were read aloud. She remains in jail without bond, isolated from other prisoners. Prosecutors will decide over the next several weeks whether to seek the death penalty.

Police say Gutierrez and DeJesus, the father of her 2-year-old daughter, robbed the Bank of America branch near Neptune Street at 10:42 a.m. About 25 minutes later, they were seen at the Crossings apartment complex on Church Avenue and Cleveland Street where they lived.

Witnesses said DeJesus ambushed Marrero as she ran across a parking lot. Gutierrez reached down and took Marrero's gun, police said, then fled with DeJesus into the apartment complex.

They broke down a door and took a hostage. Three hours later, DeJesus, 25, was dead and Gutierrez in custody.

Although she didn't pull the trigger, Gutierrez, 24, is being charged with first-degree murder because she participated in a felony that resulted in Marrero's death. Under the law, an accomplice to a murder can be just as culpable as the person who pulled the trigger.

That a police officer was killed can be be one of many aggravating factors prosecutors can consider when determining whether to seek the death penalty. Either way, Gutierrez's role in the day's events became clearer Friday.

Born in Colombia, she had lived in New York before moving to Tampa a couple of years ago. She and DeJesus lived as though they were married in Apartment 120 at the Crossings, neighbors said.

She drew little attention to herself and was known as a good mother.

"She seemed okay," neighbor Selene Brown said. "When I first got here, they were real nice to me."

But police and witnesses said she took an active role in the robbery of the bank Friday that precipitated Marrero's killing, and the robbery of the Flowers by Patricia floral shop on S MacDill Avenue three days earlier.

"They came in like regular customers," floral shop employee Catherine Haddad said Saturday. "He asked for a book to see which ones he wanted to pick and choose. He asked me if I don't mind if we go in the cooler and see the flowers. I go back to the cooler . . . and all of a sudden I turn my back . . . and he tells me to get down on my knees."

Gutierrez calmly handed DeJesus the gun and the duct tape from a backpack, Haddad said.

"When he told me not to look (at him), I said 'I've been talking to you 10-15 minutes,' " she said.

Gutierrez rifled through Haddad's purse and disabled the phone, Haddad said. After fleeing through the back door, Haddad said, she managed to bite through the tape on one hand and cut the rest off with scissors. She called her husband and daughter on a cell phone. Police arrived minutes later.

Friday morning, customers at the Bank of America branch said Gutierrez pointed a gun at employees as DeJesus waved the Mac 11 and took money from the tellers. The two made a getaway in DeJesus' yellow Nissan Xterra sport utility vehicle.

They drove to the nearby Regency Apartments, police said, and ditched the Xterra. They had someone drive them in a pickup truck to their apartment at the Crossings. They changed clothes, police said, and heard a police helicopter. Afraid police were closing in, they left the apartment and were spotted by Marrero, police said.

They ran and encountered Mark Kokojan, a neighbor and acquaintance, standing at his front door. He said Saturday that Gutierrez rushed toward him asking if she could use his phone. Seconds later, DeJesus arrived and begged him for his car keys.

"He was extremely nervous and panicked," recalled Kokojan, who said DeJesus grabbed the keys out of his hand and ran back down the stairs to his Cutlass Supreme parked in front of the apartment. "He keeps putting the wrong keys in. I kept saying, 'What's going on?' I remember saying several times, 'I'll help you.' "

Kokojan said he was trying to get his keys back when DeJesus suddenly began firing a weapon at Marrero. Gutierrez was standing in front of the car, he said.

"In a split-second he pulled out his gun, which I did not see, and started shooting" at Marrero, who didn't have her gun drawn and seemed to try to duck, Kokojan said. "I don't even think she really had a chance. He didn't say anything after that."

As other police officers arrived, DeJesus and Gutierrez fled toward another section of the complex, police said. They broke down the door of an apartment occupied by 20-year-old Isaac Davis, a college student, and the three-hour standoff with police began.

Police said the gun DeJesus used in the robberies and to kill himself is a semiautomatic weapon that is legal to buy, but that can be converted into an illegal automatic weapon, although it was unclear Saturday if that had been done.

It resembles a small machine gun and is hard to conceal. Still, officials wonder if Marrero saw the gun. Had she seen it, they doubt the veteran officer would have charged DeJesus, her gun holstered.

"That's not a logical thing to do," police spokeswoman Katie Hughes said. "And she was an experienced officer with a lot of good police skills."

Gutierrez was crouched beside the car, out of view, when Marrero approached, Hughes said. Could Gutierrez have passed him the weapon? "It's not yet clear what happened," Hughes said.

Gutierrez told police that after the shooting, she took Marrero's gun. It was recovered inside the apartment where DeJesus killed himself, fully loaded.

Medical examiner records show that Marrero, 40, was shot twice. She died from severe blood loss within minutes after a 9mm bullet entered her neck from the left side. The next step for Gutierrez will be to find a lawyer. If she or her family have the means, they can hire a private attorney. If not, the Public Defender's Office or a court-appointed private attorney will take the case.

The case has similarities to the one against Bernice Bowen in 1998. Her boyfriend, Hank Earl Carr, shot and killed Bowen's 4-year-old son. As officers investigated the shooting, Bowen never told them Carr's real name or that he was a violent felon with a prison record. Carr later escaped police custody and killed two Tampa detectives and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper before killing himself.

Authorities charged Bowen with being an accessory after the fact because she had concealed Carr's identity. Amid some criticism she was being made a scapegoat for her boyfriend's crimes, she was convicted and sentenced to 21 1/2 years in prison, although an appeals court overturned parts of her conviction last month.

While Gutierrez is accused of playing a much bigger role in the crimes committed by her boyfriend, Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner acknowledged that prosecutors would have to protect against letting emotions play any part in how to proceed with the case.

"We have to take steps to make sure the decisions we make are made with level heads," he said. "We must get past the visceral, emotional reactions and stick with the law and the facts."

As for Gutierrez's 2-year-old daughter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families said the child was staying with a relative Saturday. The DCF has no plans to take custody.

Sherry Williams, a neighbor who took refuge on her bathroom floor when she heard the shots Friday, described Gutierrez as "very polite." Williams saw Gutierrez, DeJesus and their toddler around the complex many times.

"I didn't see them fighting and I didn't see them all lovey-dovey," she said. "They seemed pretty normal."

After the melee, Williams discovered three gun shot holes in her door and one that traveled through her couch into the wall. She was surprised to find out that Gutierrez is accused of helping rob the bank and then holding police at bay from an apartment in the complex.

"She seemed like just your average everyday person," she said.

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