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Grand jury indicts father of twins
By BILL VARIAN © St. Petersburg Times, published October 10, 2000 INVERNESS -- A Citrus County grand jury returned a first-degree murder indictment Monday against Ricky Slater, the 18-year-old Crystal River man accused of shaking his 3-month-old twin daughter to death last month. The grand jury also indicted Slater on two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of aggravated child abuse-malicious punishment. Those charges relate to injuries suffered by the infant, Lacie, and her twin sister, Kelsey, between June 19 and Sept. 13, according to the indictment. The indictment followed nearly four hours of closed-door testimony from medical workers, state and Crystal River police investigators and the infants' mother, 16-year-old Lindsey Ammerman. The grand jury deliberated for about a half-hour before returning its finding. Assistant State Attorney Don Scaglione declined to say much about the grand jury proceedings, which are closed to the public, except to recite state law. He said that, under state law, a person is guilty of first-degree murder if he causes a person's death while committing certain other crimes. "Aggravated child abuse is one of those crimes," he said. He said the varied aggravated child abuse charges are similar and will be presented to jurors as options. Slater faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. Scaglione said his office has not determined whether it will seek the death penalty. Police say Slater was alone with Lacie on the morning of Sept. 13, the day she suffered her fatal injuries. Ammerman has told investigators she left the twins with Slater while she did laundry and returned to find Lacie unconscious. Slater, her boyfriend, was agitated because the child had been crying, an arrest warrant said. The couple took Lacie to Seven Rivers Community Hospital, where medical workers suspected abuse and notified child welfare workers. The Department of Children and Families had the other baby, Kelsey, examined and found similar signs of recent and past injuries. She is now in state shelter care. Lacie died Sept. 15 at Shands at the University of Florida hospital. Crystal River police arrested Slater Sept. 27, and he has been held at the Citrus County Detention Facility without bail since. Among those who testified Monday were the twins' pediatrician, Dr. Komala Bhushan, and their maternal grandmother, Carla Hernandez. Hernandez has told investigators that Slater had a temper, though she has declined to say as much publicly. She said Monday that she told the grand jury everything she has told police and said she was not surprised by any of the questions she fielded Monday. The grand jury met for an additional three hours after dispensing with the Slater case to discuss another matter, though Scaglione didn't say what happened. No information was filed by the jurors afterward. Scaglione, who oversaw the hearings, is based in Hernando County and prosecutes murder cases for the State Attorney's Office. The Citrus County Sheriff's Office is still trying to solve the murder of Renee Rosita Harris, 24, an Ocala woman found dead in the Cross Florida Barge Canal north of Crystal River May 21. Scaglione declined to say whether the grand jury was considering information in that case.
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