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By SHARON TUBBS
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000
LARGO -- Schralton "Buster" Ashley ran away from his grandmother last Christmas and survived for 30 days in a vacant house and a broken-down truck, eating only oranges he picked from a citrus tree each day.
A man found Buster cringing in the cab of a pickup on Jan. 24. The boy had lost about 15 pounds.
Child experts said Buster's story was beyond comparison -- a 10-year-old surviving alone on the streets for a month's time?
Do-gooders showered Buster and his younger sister, Dominique, with second-hand jeans, button-down shirts, shoes and winter coats.
"Those kids had more clothes in a couple of weeks than they had all their lives," Buster's grandmother, Rushie Thomas, said.
Buster told reporters and sheriff's deputies he would never run away again.
Four months later, he did.
Buster's family problems go way back. During a raving fight in the summer of 1996, his father doused his mother with alcohol, then struck a match and threw it on her as Buster listened outside the couple's bedroom door in Jacksonville. Buster's mother, Regina Bradley, and his father, Columbus Ashley, told family members an electrical cord caught the bed on fire.
Bradley took the children, Buster and Dominique, to Largo, and Ashley stayed behind in Jacksonville. Months later, Buster told a sheriff's deputy the truth and charges were filed. Ashley pleaded guilty to attempted murder and went to prison.
In August 1999, Bradley was evicted from public housing. She dropped the children off at her mother's house and rarely visited them after that. Thomas sought and gained legal custody, although she said Buster and Dominique often were disobedient and sassed her.
Last Christmas, Thomas accused Buster of stealing a battery from his cousin. Buster slipped out of the bathroom window to avoid a spanking from his uncle, and that's how he ended up hiding out in a truck for a month. Which led to the publicity, which led to the donations.
After hearing Buster's story, Jamie Dine befriended the family. Most every week, the 38-year-old school bus-driving trainer would visit Thomas' home in Largo, helping Buster and Dominique with their homework, taking Buster to a high school basketball game or to the park. He set up a portable basketball hoop in Thomas' driveway and became known as "Mr. Jamie."
"I feel he's a good kid," Dine said last week. "He always showed me a lot of respect. I would still like to work with him. He's caught in the system."
Dine said he wanted to fill a need by spending time with Buster. As a Christian, he also saw an opportunity for evangelism. "I shared the word of God with him."
Still, the clothing donations, regular counseling sessions and time spent with Dine were not enough to keep Buster home.
In April, Thomas said, she found unfinished homework assignments in his room and scolded him. Buster ran away and showed up four days later at the coin laundry where his mother used to work, Thomas said. Police drove him home, but Buster refused to get out of the car. He told the officers he didn't want to get a spanking.
"I'm not going through this with him again," Thomas said to herself this second time.
If Buster didn't want to come into her house, he didn't have to, Thomas told police. He's been in the state's care ever since.
Buster's father, who was released from prison in December, showed up for a May hearing and asked the judge for custody of his son, Thomas said. The judge said something about requiring Ashley to take an anger management course first. There was no further talk of custody from Ashley, Thomas said.
Ashley lives in Pensacola now, Thomas said, and the last she knew, Buster's mother was living in a motel in Largo. Neither could be reached for this story.
Dominique stayed with Thomas until this summer. Thomas said she returned home from a brief hospital stay and was unable to cook or care for the 10-year-old girl properly. Thomas called state case workers and asked them to pick up Dominique. Dominique still calls her weekly, Thomas said, but she has not spoken with Buster.
"They were a hard pill to swallow. It wasn't like I didn't like them or love them," said Thomas, explaining why she turned them over custody to the state.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families confirmed that the children are in state custody but would not give details.
Thomas said she doesn't imagine herself seeking to regain custody of Buster. "He can change," she said. "But who wants to go through that while he's changing?"