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By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 29, 2001
Youth to be tried as adult in fatal crash
TAMPA -- The State Attorney's Office filed charges Tuesday against a 16-year-old boy accused of killing another driver as he sped down city streets in a stolen vehicle on Sunday.
Lovy Lovette House will be tried as an adult in the death of 24-year-old Dunedin resident Kevin Eric Rogers. He faces charges of third-degree murder, grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of a conveyance, no valid driver's license, causing death and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, said State Attorney spokeswoman Pam Bondi. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
House, who was listed in fair condition at St. Joseph's Hospital Tuesday evening, will be booked into the county jail upon his release from the hospital. The teen was injured when the stolen Intrepid he was driving slammed into Rogers' car. Rogers was stopped at a stop sign on Chelsea Avenue and began to cross Central Avenue when House hit the Honda at 60 to 80 mph.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal has yet to rule on a request by Michael Schiavo that would allow him to remove his wife's feeding tube.
That means Schiavo was not able to discontinue life support Tuesday, the original deadline that had been set but was later postponed to Oct. 9.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer delayed the deadline until October to give Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, more time to fight to keep her alive.
Mrs. Schiavo collapsed from a heart attack in her St. Petersburg home on Feb. 25, 1990, and was deprived of oxygen for five minutes. She has spent more than a decade in what some doctors describe as a persistent vegetative state.
TAMPA -- Fire and rescue equipment scrambled at Tampa International Airport shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday when a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago reported a malfunction in the retractable flaps, the wing surfaces deployed during landing. The Boeing 737, operating as flight 2135 from Midway Airport, landed safely, and none of the 64 people aboard was injured. The cause was under investigation.
TAMPA -- Two reported cases of rabies have Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation officials urging the public to vaccinate their pets and avoid stray animals.
On July 16, Parks employee Harry Ostrander was transferring trapped kittens to a cage when one bit Ostrander. It later tested positive for rabies. The most recent case involved a stray cat that bit Rachel Edwards and her dog on Aug. 21 in a community park. That cat also tested positive for rabies.
Rabies is spread from the carrier through scratches, saliva and bites. Parks officials say the public should avoid contact with stray cats, dogs and raccoons. Pet owners should keep their cats and dogs from running loose.