Week in review

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 2000

STUDENT GUNNED DOWN AT NIGHTCLUB: Kevin Alexander Hayes, a 16-year-old starting cornerback on the Chamberlain High School football team, was killed early Thursday in front of the Garage night club in downtown Tampa. A gunman, apparently seeking retribution for some stolen mag wheels, fired into a crowd of patrons milling around just after closing and wounded Hayes in the head, police said. Also shot critically was 24-year-old Derrick Philips. Jose Fabian Santiago, 19, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Just three months ago, Santiago was arrested in the early morning hours one block north of the Garage on charges of aggravated assault and discharging a firearm. That case is as yet unresolved. This time, Santiago is being held in jail without bail.

Chamberlain principal Henry Washington described Hayes, who worked at Busch Gardens, as "a super kid" who was looking forward to a challenging roster of classes and a bright future.

MAN SENTENCED FOR PREYING ON FAITHFUL: A North Lakes man convicted of scamming poor people by preying on their dreams of home ownership was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison. Jerome Ellington, 44, faced eight to 15 years, according to state sentencing guidelines. Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett departed from the guidelines after deciding that the offenses created substantial economic hardship for multiple victims, had a high degree of sophistication and that Ellington abused a position of trust to make the scam work.

Last month, a jury found Ellington guilty of 53 felony counts, including grand theft and racketeering, stemming from a program that bilked victims with little income out of $250,000.

The scam began in 1997 when Ellington told eager home buyers that his company would fix their credit and start construction on a 2,000-square-foot home for them in three to six months at a cost of $1,659.95, plus a monthly fee of $165. Through a formula involving reduced overhead, wholesale materials and a separate mortgage for labor costs, Ellington said, even families making $30,000 a year could afford one of the dream homes.

Ellington said his Home Ownership Means Empowerment program, or H.O.M.E., was grounded in Christian principles and he prayed with some of the victims. The program promised free lawn maintenance, maid service, haircuts and legal help. About 150 people signed up.

Investigators said Ellington spent much of the money on himself, including $2,624 for a sound system for his Mercedes and $8,000 to keep his two-story, waterfront North Lakes home out of foreclosure.

Ellington claimed that he had every intention of fulfilling his promises and that he never intended to hurt anyone. His lawyer, Danny Fernandez, argued at trial that an office manager who gained control of the program when Ellington developed medical problems was really to blame.

A SECOND CASTOR ENTERS POLITICS: Tampa lawyer Kathy Castor tossed her hat into the political ring Tuesday as a candidate for the state Senate seat her trailblazing mother once held. She made the announcement at her alma mater, Chamberlain High School, partly to show her deep roots in the community, but also to illustrate a plank in her political platform that calls for improvements in how tax dollars are spent on public education.

"If we've done all we can for public education, why is it like this?" she asked, pointing to rows of portable classrooms. "We must reduce overcrowding."

If elected, she said her top priorities will be reducing class sizes in public schools, health care issues and protecting the natural environment through growth management.

Castor's mother, Betty, former state education commissioner and president of the University of South Florida, was not present for the announcement but supports her candidacy, the candidate said.

Castor is the only Democrat running for the seat being vacated by Carrollwood Republican John Grant. Two Republicans also are running: state Rep. Victor Crist, R-Tampa Palms, and former state Rep. Faye Culp.

Crist is far ahead in campaign contributions with more than $130,000, mostly from political action committees and corporate contributors. Culp has raised $35,000 from small donors living mostly in the district.

Castor, a newcomer to politics, downplayed comparisons to her mother. "This was (my mother's) old seat 20 years ago, but this is not about her or 20 years ago," Castor said. "It's about what this community will look like 20 years from now."

A product of public schools and the mother of two small children, Castor said, her concern for their future in public education motivated her to run. "I have two daughters and I want them to have schools with smaller classrooms," she said. "I don't want our schools overcrowded and having double sessions."

TRANSIT ON TRACK FROM HILLSBOROUGH TO OLDSMAR: In less than two weeks, local businesses might finally find workers for many of the lower-wage jobs they have struggled to fill in the past few years.

The long-anticipated express bus routes that aim to bring lower-income workers into Oldsmar are scheduled to start running July 31, and local employers are preparing for the arrival of the new service.

The new express bus routes are the result of a $2-million grant Pinellas County received from the state Department of Transportation. The grant was part of $8-million the DOT distributed for different WAGES transportation programs. WAGES, short for Work and Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency, oversees welfare-to-work programs in many parts of Florida.

The buses, free for the first two years, will stop in low-income areas and aim to bring up to 500 WAGES clients to Oldsmar to work. Three Pinellas routes and the Pasco route will start July 31, and the three Hillsborough routes get going Aug. 23.

NORTH TAMPA BABY COMES QUICKLY: The plan was for a neighbor to drive 19-year-old Antonia Hernandez to the hospital if she went into labor while her husband was at work.

The baby, however, had other ideas.

After two hours of back pain, Hernandez decided Wednesday she should see her doctor and was outside her home at 1515 E 140th Ave. when her water broke shortly after noon. As she and her neighbors walked toward the car parked on the street, the baby suddenly and swiftly arrived.

"I was standing at the door of the car, and the baby just slid down my (pants) leg," Hernandez said in Spanish, through an interpreter.

Before the newborn landed on the street, neighbor Lucia Gomez reacted. "I grabbed the baby at the end of her pants," said Gomez, 27. "I was scared."

While the baby gave a thin cry, neighbors called 911, and wrapped the baby girl in blankets and waited for paramedics to arrive and cut the umbilical cord. Then Hernandez and her daughter were taken by ambulance to University Community Hospital on Fletcher Avenue.

At the hospital, a relieved Domingo Mendez, 22, joined his wife and 6-pound, 7-ounce daughter the couple named Tyla. The child is their second, and expected to be fine.

SHERIFF CAL IS BURGLARIZED IN CARROLLWOOD: Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson discovered dirty footprints and an open door Saturday at a Carrollwood condominium he owns. He didn't, however, find $674 worth of tools he kept there. Two vacuum cleaners, a cordless drill, a tile cutter and a box full of hand tools were taken from Henderson's $51,000 condominium at N Dale Mabry Highway and Lazy Lane. He said the size of the footprints make him think that juveniles were responsible.

"Even the sheriff can be a victim," he said.

Henderson lives in Lithia, not in the condominium he bought after a divorce in 1980. He uses the condo as a rental property, but he said he has contacted a real estate agent because he is tired of being a landlord. Henderson, 56, is seeking his third four-year term as sheriff.

PASCO ROAD PROJECT BLOCKS CREEK: In a move that has angered neighborhood activists, contractors on the County Line Road extension project have temporarily dammed 13-Mile Run, a tributary that leads to the Hillsborough River. While building the 1-mile highway, which will connect U.S. 41 with Collier Parkway, builder Cone and Graham Inc. buried several culverts that run under an existing stretch of County Line Road.

The lack of rain this year has converted 13-Mile Run into little more than a mudhole. But the County Line Coalition, a local civic association, said blocking the creek exposes communities upstream to flooding in the event of heavy rain.

13-Mile Run begins near Bell Lake in Land O'Lakes, passes under State Road 54, flows into Bird Lake and then trickles south through stands of cypress trees before crossing County Line Road.

The stream continues south toward Lake Kell and Lake Stemper, eventually merging with Cypress Creek on its way to the Hillsborough River.

Coalition president Gaye Townsend said damming 13-Mile Run on the Pasco County/Hillsborough County border threatens neighborhoods such as Foxwood, Cypress Cove and Lake Padgett Estates.

"It's dry now, but we could get a tropical storm that could flood everybody out in two or three days," Townsend said Wednesday as a bulldozer shaped the mound of dirt covering the culverts.

Townsend has been a persistent opponent of County Line Road's extension, a project she considers both environmentally destructive and unnecessary from a traffic standpoint.

Some neighbors from Willow Bend, the neighborhood to be sliced in two by the extension, have joined her in opposition, complaining about the thousands of cars expected to use the road each day. Other central Pasco residents praise it as a needed east-west link to Dale Mabry and U.S. 41.

Pasco engineers argue that the road, on the books since the 1980s, will help lighten the traffic load on SR 54. Half the road is already built in the form of Willow Bend Parkway and a stretch of dead-ended County Line Road east of U.S. 41. Road construction, which began in June, should wrap up in about a year.

Cone & Graham declined to comment about the damming of the creek. But during a Tuesday visit by an inspector from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, contractors agreed to speed up plans to install new culverts to channel 13-Mile Run.

"Should a serious flooding problem arise at the crossing, the contractor, at a moment's notice, could remove the earthen plug for immediate relief," Swiftmud regulator A. Paul Desmarais said in a letter Wednesday to Pasco's engineering department.

CONNERTON IS A GO: Pasco County Commissioners blessed plans for the massive Connerton community Tuesday night, paving the way for one of the more unusual developments in the area.

The unanimous vote capped three years of review by 18 federal, state and local agencies, said developer Doug Conner. Supporters tout Connerton as an experimental community comparable to Celebration, Disney's pedestrian-friendly, neo-traditional development near Orlando.

On paper, Connerton is a self-sustaining, 8,000-acre community that eventually could become its own city. Designed to be built over 30 years, Connerton will feature 15,177 homes circling a city center of shops, schools, a hospital, a town hall and a community college campus. It lies near U.S. 41 and State Road 52.

It is the latest -- and largest -- development along a central Pasco corridor that recently has been carved up into several substantial communities. The developers of those communities are counting on the easy access to Tampa that the Suncoast Parkway, a north-south toll road that crosses central Pasco on its way to the Veterans Expressway, will provide to new home buyers when it is opened next year.

With the county's approval of his development order in hand, Conner may break ground as early as next year. The first phase of Connerton, 3,800 homes, is scheduled for completion in 2005. Subsequent phases of 5,339 and 5,978 homes, which will have to undergo further review by the county, would follow. Its estimated population would be at least 30,000.

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