BARTOW -- A jury on Thursday convicted Darwin Klinger of DUI manslaughter in the death of Thomas Branco, a Jehovah's Witness from St. Petersburg whose refusal to accept a blood transfusion was a key issue at trial.

Karen Branco was with her 24-year-old son in February 1999 when his car broke down on State Road 60 west of downtown Bartow. He got out to push the car off the road and was hit from behind by Klinger's vehicle.

Doctors told him he needed a blood transfusion to survive. But citing the teaching of his religion to abstain from blood products, he refused. He died after surgery to amputate both legs.

Surgeons testified at the trial that it was not certain Branco would have survived had he agreed to transfusions.

Klinger, 56, of Gibsonton, was also convicted of tampering with evidence. Witnesses said that after the crash he took a six-pack of beer from his car and tried to hide it in a nearby car lot.

He will be sentenced in October and faces 10 to 15 years in prison. Circuit Judge Randall McDonald ordered him taken into custody after the verdict.

Branco's mother said she was proud that her son held fast to his religious beliefs.

"Our son remained truly faithful to Jehovah to the end," Karen Branco said.

Brinks offers $100,000 reward in theft of millions

FORT MYERS -- Brinks Inc. is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of $3.34-million stolen from the company's warehouse over the Labor Day holiday weekend and the arrest of the suspect.

Henry Moravia Von Schwarc, a Brinks employee who was working Sept. 2, the day the money disappeared from the warehouse, is suspected in the theft. He hasn't been seen since his shift ended. The FBI has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Von Schwarc, 41, was alone in the Brinks warehouse for part of the day. The FBI said he used the access codes of other employees not working that day to move throughout the facility.

Von Schwarc had been a Brinks employee about 18 months. His wife, Jana, is believed to have left for their home country of Czechoslovakia about six weeks ago, the FBI said.

Meanwhile, in West Palm Beach, two Brinks drivers were accused of stealing thousands from automated tellers on their route.

Driver Jose Salado, 38, admitted stealing at least $12,000, according to Palm Beach County sheriff's reports. Salado said he and driver Deibis Lebrato used a screwdriver to remove the money from automatic teller machines in at least eight separate thefts between June and August. Salado said he gave Lebrato several thousand dollars each time to keep quiet about the crime, reports said.

Salado has been charged with grand theft and is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on $15,000 bond. Lebrato, 30, faces the same charge, but is believed to have fled to Cuba.

Florida college students report heavy drinking

TALLAHASSEE -- More than a third of Florida's college students are "problem drinkers," a new poll shows.

The survey of more than 400 public and private four-year university students found that 48 percent of men and 28 percent of women respondents regarded themselves as "binge" drinkers.

The poll for a national trade association that serves student activities was conducted by e-mail by Washington-based Penn, Shoen & Berland Associates. The margin of error was 4.9 percent.

One in four students reported they had gotten seriously ill from drinking within the last year.

Nearly two-thirds said the misuse of alcohol and unsafe drinking at their schools is a very or somewhat serious problem, and over one-quarter said the problem was getting worse.

One-third of the students said they drank to get drunk on more than four occasions this year.

The Florida numbers were slightly below the poll's national findings of more than 200,000 college students, where 41 percent of men and 34 percent of women were self-reported binge drinkers.

Driver charged with running woman off bridge

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The man who authorities say bumped a woman's car over an urban highway bridge into a swamp, leaving her stranded for three days, has been formally charged.

Scott Andrew Campbell, 21, of Hollywood, Fla., was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries and culpable negligence for causing an injury, both felonies, and giving a false report to a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor, Ron Ishoy of the Broward State Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Campbell allegedly rear-ended 83-year-old Tillie Tooter early on the morning of Aug. 12, forcing her car over the side of Interstate 595 and into a swamp 40 feet below.

That same morning, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper was dispatched to a nearby crash. A trooper found Campbell and a passenger sitting in a black 1991 Camaro with heavy front-end damage. Campbell told the trooper he thought he had hit a wall but did not mention hitting another vehicle, according to the report.

Tooter was missing for three days until she was rescued after a bridge worker looked down and saw her.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk