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A family mourns the loss of its pillar
By AMY HERDY © St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2000 TAMPA -- Nora Wells was home reading the Sunday paper when she heard what she thought was a car accident. She stepped into her garage and looked out on a nightmarish scene: Jemale, her husband of 14 years and the father of their two young daughters, was on the ground, a bullet in his abdomen. Her neighbors were screaming. As she dialed 911, she applied pressure to her husband's wound. He asked for water, which paramedics told her he could not have. Despite hours of surgery, he died at the hospital. Thursday, friends and family remembered Jemale Wells: a military intelligence officer responsible for the security of his troops; a fierce football fan with Florida A&M University and Tampa Bay Buccaneer season tickets; a loyal and fun-loving fraternity brother and friend who could whip up a barbecue feast at the drop of a hat. But more than anything, they said, Wells was a man devoted to his family. "What I learned from Jemale," said college friend Keith Daniel, the best man at Wells' wedding, "was how to love and take care of kids. I never in my whole life saw a man so close to his kids." In a brutal twist, Wells' sense of responsibility to children may have contributed to his death. Hillsborough sheriff's records give the following account: As Wells and others in his Countryway neighborhood watched the Bucs game Sunday, a group of boys playing football on the cul-de-sac at 11682 Fox Creek Drive began to fight. Wells broke up the fight, and sent a 12-year-old to his home down the street. The boy's mother, 37-year-old Sherri Toney, appeared minutes later, screaming racial slurs at Wells and then calling her boyfriend, 40-year-old Randy Puryear, to the scene. Puryear, a Town 'N Country dentist who lives in Bay Crest, arrived with a gun and also screamed racial epithets at Wells. From there the witness accounts are sketchy. What everyone does agree on is that the men grappled and the gun went off, fatally wounding Wells. He was 39. Puryear, whom sheriff's deputies charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault, was freed the next day on $75,000 bail. "Dr. Puryear is deeply upset about what happened," said his lawyer, Eddie Saurez, who added his client denies using a racial slur. "All the facts have not been reported." Still, Saurez said, "(Puryear) feels like this is a terrible tragedy." Raised near San Jose, Calif., Wells graduated from high school in 1980 and attended FAMU in Tallahassee, joining the Alpha Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He joined the Army ROTC program and met his wife in 1982. The couple meshed from the beginning, said Nora Wells' sister, Sharon Thomas. "They just seemed to be made for each other." Wells graduated in 1984 with a degree in public management, and from there was commissioned in the Army as a military intelligence officer. While in the Army, he became Airborne and Air Assault certified, and was honorably discharged in 1990 as a decorated captain. Jemale and Nora Wells then moved to Tampa, where Wells took a job with the St. Petersburg Times as a circulation manager. The couple started a family, and Wells soon opened his own cleaning business in order to have flexible hours. "He had an amazing energy," said Jan Marks, who met Wells in 1993 during her time as a general manager of the Rubb, a club in Ybor he cleaned. "Even with all the work that he did, if I needed help, he would come." In 1996, the Wellses bought the Beverage King, a store on W Waters Avenue. Now with two daughters, Wells pushed himself to succeed. He cleaned offices at night and worked at the store during the day, often to the point of exhaustion, friends recalled. "He said no matter what happens to me, my family will be taken care of," Daniel remembered. "He was always talking about his girls, and made sure plans for their college education were in place." Relatives say Wells threw himself into parenthood. "From the time they were babies, Jemale took the girls everywhere with him," recalled his father-in-law, Bob Carroll, vice president for administrative affairs at FAMU. It was not uncommon for Wells to shuttle the girls to ballet, gymnastics, or to visits with relatives. "He would fix their hair, iron their clothes and get the crease just right," Thomas said. Despite a serious exterior, she said, Wells had a warm and sensitive side. "You could really depend on him." In the spring, the Wells' sold the store on W Waters Avenue. In July, Wells began a job with the Flyer as an advertising consultant. He was excited about the job, Carroll said, as it meant more time with his family. Now, his wife is devastated and his 9-year-old daughter, Kristen, clings to her grandfather for hugs. Her sister, 5-year-old Danielle, is still easily distracted with the crush of relatives in the home. She is content with the knowledge that "Daddy's in heaven," Carroll said. "I don't think any of us can fathom the full extent of the loss. A good man is gone." - Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com.
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