Tampabay: Firefighter guilty of killing friend

TAMPA -- Rick and Debbie Wilson sat through the two-day trial of the man who shot their son, hoping for the truth to come out, hoping the man would take responsibility for what he had done.

Anthony Eldridge never took the stand to tell how he mistakenly killed his friend Tom Groverafter a night out in Ybor City.

But a jury deliberated less than 45 minutes Tuesday before convicting him of manslaughter by culpable negligence with a firearm. The decision proved bittersweet for the Wilsons.

"Too many people were hurt on both sides," said Debbie Wilson, who sat among dozens of relatives and friends during the trial. "I just wanted justice for Tommy."

The verdict came after hours of testimony about what happened inside Eldridge's Dodge Ram pickup after a night of drinking in Ybor City last year.

According to authorities, Eldridge, Grover and Chris Hilgeman drove up from the Sarasota area Sept. 30 for a night on the town. The men, who knew each other from their jobs as firefighters and paramedics, had a few drinks and headed to college night at Bar Tampa in Ybor City for free beers.

They left around 2:30 a.m. and headed home on Interstate 4. They were in Eldridge's new truck, but Grover, a paramedic in Manatee County, was driving because he had stopped drinking earlier than the other two men. Blood-alcohol levels taken afterward showed all three men were above the level at which the state presumes impairment.

Eldridge showed off a hunting knife he had in the truck, but neither Hilgeman, 23, nor Grover, 24, said much about it and Eldridge put it away. Soon after, Eldridge pulled out an unloaded .40-caliber Ruger. He pointed it out the driver's-side window and pulled the trigger. The gun simply clicked.

Eldridge tried to pass it to Hilgeman, but he pushed it back. Eldridge then picked up a magazine filled with hollow-point ammunition. Hilgeman's heart began to race and he became nervous. He said he told Eldridge that he was being stupid and not to mess around with the gun. When Eldridge put the gun away, Hilgeman began to relax and shut his eyes.

A few minutes later, an explosion jolted him and he saw Grover slumping toward the middle of the front seat.

"He had a hole in the side of his head," Hilgeman said when he took the stand to testify against Eldridge.

While he did not to intend to shoot Grover, Eldridge should not have continued to escalate the situation after the other men had told him to cut it out, prosecutors Andrew Shein and Art McNeil argued. Eldridge acted with a gross and flagrant disregard for Grover's life and should have known better than to handle a loaded gun in a moving car after consuming as many as 20 beers, they said.

On top of that, Eldridge changed his story several times and misled detectives about where he had thrown the gun after the truck crashed into a guardrail.

Prosecutors dismissed the defense's contention that the gun went off as Eldridge tried to make it safe to pass to Grover.

"Don't be seduced by the tales," Shein told the jurors. "You gotta pull the trigger for the gun to go off. You gotta pull the trigger."

Eldridge, 30, a firefighter from Manatee County, sat through long stretches of testimony with his hands pressed against his face, wiping away constant tears that eventually stained the cuffs of his dark shirt. He shuddered during Hilgeman's testimony and sobbed as an assistant medical examiner described Grover's wounds.

His family consoled him often, rubbing his back and trying to calm him. There was a last burst of tears and a short embrace before bailiffs escorted him out of the courtroom. Eldridge, who has no prior arrests, faces several years in prison. His sentence will be determined in November after an investigation.

Eldridge's father, Lane Eldridge, said he knew some punishment had to be doled out for what happened. He stood by his son, saying he would never have done anything like this intentionally.

"It's just tough to see so many people hurt by this," he said. "So many tears."

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