Tampabay: Murder case coincidence plagues police

As St. Petersburg police worked to contain the racial disturbance of October 1996, Andre Miller was shot and killed after surprising three men burglarizing cars near his home.

Miller's family questioned why his death went nearly unnoticed during two days of violence sparked when a white police officer shot and killed a black motorist.

But police didn't forget Miller. After three years of fruitless leads, police in July 1999 said they finally found Miller's killer and his accomplice.

Both were indicted for first-degree murder. What they didn't tell the public was that they found a second accomplice as well, a man they never charged with any crime.

That suspect, Antron Peterson, 21, is the stepson of a St. Petersburg police sergeant.

While a defense attorney accuses police of protecting one of their own, prosecutors and police point to a remarkable coincidence as proof that police played no favorites:

Another suspect, the man charged with pulling the trigger, also was the stepson of a St. Petersburg officer.

"I think it's just selective prosecution, and it's not right," Anne Borghetti, an attorney representing one of the two men charged with murder, said of the decision not to charge Peterson.

Prosecutors say they were forced to make an undesirable choice in the case. Without the cooperation of one of the three suspects, they said, they did not have a case against anybody.

"Absent Antron Peterson's testimony against the other two, we have zippo, nothing," said Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett. "Without his testimony, there are a lot of gaping holes in the case that prevent prosecution."

In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Peterson agreed to testify against the other two suspects: alleged triggerman Jermaine Green, 27, and Wakeene Blanche, 24, both of St. Petersburg.

Peterson was the suspect viewed by police as being the least responsible for Miller's death, Bartlett said. The fact that he was the stepson of St. Petersburg Sgt. Al White had nothing to do with the decision not to charge him, the prosecutor said.

Anyway, Green was the stepson of another officer, Derrick Pollock, Bartlett and police said. Pollock retired after Green was charged in July 1999.

Police believe Pollock was no longer married to Green's mother at the time of the October 1996 killing of Miller, though this could not be confirmed.

"The proposition that Peterson was not charged because he is a cop's stepson just isn't there," Bartlett said.

Both Green and Blanche face the death penalty in a trial scheduled for early next year.

On Oct. 24, 1996, the night of the disturbances, Miller's family called him at his job at Leverock's Seafood House in St. Pete Beach, warning him to take a different route home.

Just after midnight on Oct. 25, Miller pulled into the Pinellas Pointe Apartments, 2175 62nd Place S, with a fried shrimp dinner for his girlfriend.

He saw someone breaking into a car. Miller drove to the rear of the complex to get a friend, and they drove back. They saw a man jump from a car and run between buildings. They saw two other men by a building, hidden in a shadow.

Miller was shot as he started knocking on neighbors' doors to warn them.

The case proved frustrating for St. Petersburg detectives. They had few leads to work with.

But they eventually found the alleged murder weapon when they responded to a fight between Green and his girlfriend. Later, a tip led them to Peterson.

Peterson, living with his natural father, was picked up and interviewed by police.

Detectives would tell prosecutors that they did not read Peterson any warning about his right to remain silent.

Though Peterson was wanted on a warrant for failing to pay a fine for a misdemeanor petty theft conviction, police did not arrest him.

Detective Ronald Noodwang said in pretrial testimony that police viewed Peterson as the least responsible for Miller's death. He said police already had information that Peterson was the suspect who fled before the shooting.

With a 3-year-old unsolved murder, Noodwang said police were willing to deal with Peterson to make a case against Green and Blanche.

"We told him that we don't have any plans to charge him," Noodwang said. "If he wants to come and tell the whole truth about this case, we're after the shooter."

Peterson recounted the night of Miller's death.

He told detectives that he and his two friends decided to burglarize cars, confident that police were tied up with the disturbances. As Peterson and Green broke into a car -- Blanche acted as a lookout -- Miller drove onto the scene.

Peterson told detectives that he thought he saw Miller approaching with a gun. So he ran away. As he ran, he said he heard three shots. Police said Miller was unarmed.

Later, Peterson said, he met up with Green, who he said told him Miller shot at him. So Green fired back, Peterson said his friend told him.

Not long after his friends were charged with murder, Peterson joined the Army.

"He just happened to be the one who cooperated with us," Noodwang said in an interview. "Wakeene Blanche could have been in the same boat. But he didn't want to talk."

Attorney Jeff Albinson, who represents Green, said Peterson was hardly cooperative. Peterson, he said, didn't talk until cornered.

Police and prosecutors, Albinson said, could easily have charged him with first-degree murder, too. His actions, at the least, are even more culpable than Blanche, who was just a lookout and didn't break into the car, he said.

Under Florida law, someone participating in a felony, in this case a burglary, can be charged with a murder even if that person didn't pull the trigger.

"The fact that these two other fellas face death while this other guy roams the earth scot-free is incomprehensible to me," Albinson said. "And I've found nothing to justify that disparate treatment."

Bartlett acknowledges prosecutors could have charged Peterson with first-degree murder. "I'm not going to tell you otherwise," he said.

Albinson said he didn't buy that prosecutors don't have a case without Peterson, noting that police say they have linked a murder weapon to Green before they ever talked to Peterson.

Miller's family, meanwhile, is puzzled that Peterson is free.

"It sends a bad message to young folks," said Edna Barnes, Miller's aunt. "People figure they can keep doing the killing, and they're never going to get caught."

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