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Neighborhood grieves; police reveal little
By SUSAN THURSTON © St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2000 TAMPA -- Friends and neighbors remembered Nancy Marlins on Saturday as a kind woman who would give you the shirt off her back. She often opened her home to disabled youths and relatives with nowhere else to turn. Among those she had taken in was her 25-year-old grandson, Dexter Alonzo Levingston, despite his troubles with the law. Levingston was arrested Friday shortly before the discovery of five bodies inside Marlins' home on Lakewood Drive in Seffner. While not charged with the deaths, he is being questioned by detectives and held without bond on charges he assaulted deputies during his arrest. Officials have not released the identities of any of the victims, but a friend said deputies led her to believe Marlins was among those killed. "She had a big heart," long-time friend Kathryn Hemsley said. "If you asked her for her shirt she would give it to you." Hillsborough Sheriff's Sgt. Rod Reder provided few details about the crime or the victims Saturday. He said investigators were continuing to gather information, autopsies had yet to be performed and relatives had not been notified in every case. He said the victims were three black adult women, one white adult man and one juvenile white female. One of the women may have been married to the man. They all died of "blunt trauma," Reder said. "Not in modern history have we had a homicide of this magnitude," he said. Deputies were called to the home after Marlins, a school bus aide, and her sister, Lillie Cacciamani, a school bus driver, failed to show up for work Friday morning. They found Levingston crouched in the garage with a gun. When he wouldn't come out, they pumped tear gas into the home. He walked out of the garage a short time later and was taken into custody. When the tear gas cleared, deputies discovered the bodies. Reder would not say what, if anything, Levingston has told them. Levingston has a history of arrests for drugs, drunken driving and resisting arrest in Hillsborough County dating back to 1995. Reder said Levingston also had an arrest record in Virginia and Washington, D.C., but could not provide details. Some neighbors said he was strange, and would sometimes stand in the yard, smoking and staring at them. It was unclear when Levingston had moved into the house. Neighbors said Marlins kept to herself, and it was difficult to keep track of who was living in the house at any given time. "After they got in they just took over the home," Hemsley said. "That was probably what the feud was about." Marlins, 57, worked on buses that drove disabled students to schools in Brandon, Seffner and Valrico. Hemsley said she met her about 15 years ago while working together at a nursing home. They became instant friends and stayed close after Marlins took the school bus job in 1993. The women saw each other two or three times a month, but never talked much about their personal lives, Hemsley said. They mostly played cards, one of Marlins' favorite pastimes. Sometimes, Marlins would take her out to lunch. "She would just drop in when she felt like it," Hemsley said. "She was a big-hearted woman." Marlins went to church several times a week and loved baking. On weekends, she sold her pies and cakes out of her garage. School spokesman Mark Hart described Marlins and her sister, Cacciamani, as reliable employees. He said Cacciamani, 56, was hired in 1997. It was unclear Saturday if she was living at the home on Lakewood Drive. Several of their sisters and relatives gathered at the home Saturday, but were too distraught to talk to reporters. People who didn't know the family came to offer their support. Some left flowers on the sidewalk in front of the house. - Staff writer Linda Gibson contributed to this report.
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