Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Times staff writers
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2000
Chief's brother cleared of rape, convicted of assault+
LARGO -- The brother of St. Petersburg Police Chief Goliath Davis III was cleared of rape charges Thursday but was found guilty of lesser charges of assault and possession of cocaine.
Geoffrey Davis, 47, who did not testify during the trial, had been charged with sexual battery on a 36-year-old woman who still has a close relationship with him. When police arrested him Jan. 18, they found a crack pipe in his pocket with cocaine residue on it.
After the verdict was read, Davis was immediately booked and taken to jail after Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt Downey sentenced him to 60 days in jail for the assault, a second-degree misdemeanor, and six months for the felony possession of cocaine. Davis already has spent at least 70 days in jail, his attorney said.
Davis was relieved that he was not convicted of sexual battery but thought he should have been acquitted on the drug charge, said his attorney J.S. Lucas Fleming.
"I think the jury saw this case for what it was," Fleming said. The two clearly had a relationship before and after the accusations, he said.
"The victim was very supportive," Fleming said. She voluntarily attended Thursday's proceedings, talked with Davis during breaks and ate pizza with him while jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes.
But prosecutor Pat Siracusa used their relationship to highlight the woman's objectivity about what happened. "They're friends, and she (still) says it's a rape," he said. "She never says it didn't happen."
TAMPA -- The trial date for Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, the man accused of killing five people during a Dec. 30 rampage that started at a hotel on the Courtney Campbell Parkway, was pushed back Thursday from Feb. 5 to Feb. 26. The date will likely be delayed a couple more times, which is normal in high-profile murder cases. Attorneys have about 200 witness statements and about 700 photographs to consider. Izquierdo-Leyva's defense attorneys still need to visit Cuba to interview people who knew him before he moved to the United States. Police say that after killing four co-workers, Izquierdo-Leyva fled the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel in a stolen car and abandoned it in West Tampa, where he killed a motorist who refused to give up her car. Police said he stole another car and was captured minutes later about 3 miles away. Besides five murder charges, he faces multiple counts of attempted murder with a firearm, aggravated assault with a firearm, carjacking with a firearm and attempted carjacking.
TAMPA -- Hillsborough sheriff's deputies are looking for a vehicle in a hit-and-run accident Sunday involving a pedestrian. A side mirror found at the scene belongs to a Jeep Cherokee Grand Larado model built between 1993 and 1998.
The Jeep slammed into Gregory Whitening, 43, Sunday about 2:13 p.m. while he walked on the shoulder of westbound Hillsborough Avenue, deputies said. Whitening, of 3014 42nd St., was taken to Tampa General Hospital in critical condition.
Anyone with information was asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 247-8200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.
TAMPA -- Officials have identified the man who died Wednesday after being ejected from a Ford Mustang as Sidney Goldklang.
Goldklang, 38, of 6202 Sheldon Road, was westbound on Waters Avenue about 4:45 p.m. when he struck the concrete median and his car flipped into the path of oncoming traffic. He was going about 50 mph, deputies said.
PINELLAS PARK -- A teen who went to the police station to complain about his car being towed ended up in jail after a police employee saw him reach over a counter and swipe a figurine from her desk, authorities said.
Officers stopped Michael Coolbaugh, 19, as he was leaving the station.
"Maybe it's not right," Coolbaugh reportedly told a detective, "but I was thinking that they took something of mine, so I took something of theirs."
Coolbaugh, a Pinellas Park resident, is charged with burglary and theft.
Pinellas Park police gave the following account:
Coolbaugh went to the station Monday afternoon.He was sent to the second-floor lobby to talk to a code enforcement officer. He yelled at the officer and was told to leave.
The lobby has a counter with a window much like a bank teller. Just past the window is the desk of Laurie Wagner, administrative clerk for Pinellas Park's police detectives. Wagner saw Coolbaugh reach in and take a ceramic owl from her desk. She asked for it back, but he said he didn't have it.
Coolbaugh, becoming loud and hostile again, was again told to leave. He and his companions got into the elevator. Wagner told her co-workers of the theft.
A detective and an officer stopped Coolbaugh at the station's front door. After several denials, police say Coolbaugh admitted taking the owl and a handcarved stone dolphin from Wagner.
Police say he apologized to Wagner.
ST. PETERSBURG -- The pedestrian struck by a car and killed Wednesday night has been identified by police as Jean M. Fernandez, 40.
She was hit in front of Mayflower Apartments at 4200 First St. N, where she lived with her brother, Michael Fernandez, said Officer Mike Preshur. Her family could not be reached Thursday.
"It's a shame," said neighbor Oscar Mone, 62. "She's a good person. Real nice decent girl."
Fernandez had finished eating dinner and told her brother she was going for a walk, police said. He heard the crash and ran outside and found her lying in the street.
She was hit at 7:46 p.m. by a 1997 Oldsmobile in the First Street N curb lane just before 42nd Avenue, Preshur said. Her body hit the windshield, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Charges are not expected. There were no eyewitnesses.
Neighbors said the driver of the Oldsmobile, 40-year-old Diana Ivans, of St. Petersburg, did not see Fernandez, who was wearing dark clothes. Ivans was not injured.
"The driver, when she saw her, had no time to avoid colliding with her," Preshur said.
Fernandez was disabled from a work accident and was unemployed.