Man's shooting trial begins

He shot a female acquaintance in the face and left her for dead, authorities say. He has pleaded not guilty.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The last time Shamel Thomas and Melissa Kane were in the same room together, authorities say, he fired a bullet into her face point-blank.

When the 21-year-old woman confronted him Tuesday in a Pasco courtroom, she wore dark sunglasses on her rebuilt face and told in a clear, soft voice of sliding toward death while her little girl watched.

"I felt myself about to pass out, and I got nervous, and I said, "Mommy's going to die,' " Kane testified under questioning from prosecutor Mike Halkitis on the opening day of Thomas' attempted murder trial.

On the evening of June 25 last year, she testified, she was cooking spaghetti and sauce for her two young children when there was a knock on the door of her Moog Road home in Holiday. The visitor was Thomas, she said, whom she recognized as an acquaintance of her ex-boyfriend Anthony Scott Sablan.

Thomas said he was looking for Kane's current boyfriend -- whom Sablan suspected had conspired with Kane to rob him -- and Kane showed him around the house to prove the boyfriend wasn't there, she testified.

He seemed nervous, she said, adding: "I figured he was scared. I didn't think I was going to get shot." Then she heard the gun go off.

When Pasco County Fire Rescue paramedic Dennis DeSalvo found her sprawled on the floor, he noticed the .38-caliber slug that ripped through her head had left brain matter dislodged. DeSalvo testified that that sight, along with his inability to find a pulse, led him to pronounce her dead.

Sheriff's Deputy Travis Gardner testified that when he shined a flashlight on her hand, he saw it moving, and he heard Kane mumbling. Paramedics, who had left the scene, were two blocks away when they got the message to return.

Halkitis described her survival as a miracle. Equally miraculous, he suggested, was the ability of Kane's 5-year-old daughter, Antoinette, to pick Thomas out of a set of photos as the man who shot her mother.

When Pasco detectives interrogated Thomas, a hidden camera recorded him confessing to the shooting. On the tape, played Tuesday in court, Thomas says Anthony Scott Sablan gave him the gun, dropped him off near Kane's house, and told him he would pay him to murder Kane and her new boyfriend.

"(Sablan) was going to give me money and drugs and everything if I do this . . .," Thomas told detectives. "At first he said a thousand dollars, then he said my pockets will be fatter than that."

Thomas also told detectives he fired one shot at Kane.

"I just pulled up and closed my eyes and shot her and ran," Thomas said.

More evidence implicating Thomas came from Xiomara Valdes, who was his girlfriend at the time. She testified that he returned home on the evening of the shooting and said, "I shot the b----."

Thomas, 21, who has pleaded not guilty, could face life in prison if convicted. His lawyer, Keith Hammond, rested his case Tuesday without giving an opening statement or calling any witnesses. Closing arguments are scheduled for this morning.

Sablan, who was charged with accessory after the fact to attempted murder in the case, remains at large.

- Staff writer Christopher Goffard covers courts in west Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or (800) 333-7505, extension 6236. His e-mail address is goffard@sptimes.com.

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