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Suspect bragged, witness says
By BILL COATS © St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2000 TAMPA -- Mike Fuqua bragged about fatally stabbing a man in Ybor City, the star prosecution witness testified Friday. "He said it went in really easily like, it was kind of like butter," said Jarrett Brock. "He kind of sounded proud of it." Brock, 19, testified Friday in the second-degree murder trial of Fuqua, 24. The two had been buddies in Lutz, and were regarded by a local sheriff's deputy as members of the Lutz Boyz, a group of toughs. But Brock said he began to cool off the friendship after the stabbing of Jeremiah "Jeff" Kleiss in a spring break bar fight. Fuqua noticed that, and told Brock he would kill someone who talked to police, Brock testified. A frightened Brock did exactly that. "I was scared," he testified. "I started to think I couldn't trust his actions around me." Brock testified he lent Fuqua a sharp, single-blade folding knife before he went to Ybor City the night of March 14. "He said he needed something in case they got into trouble or had a fight or anything like that," Brock testified. Nine days after the stabbing, Brock led detectives to a patch of palmetto in Lutz, where he said Fuqua had hidden the jersey he wore during the bar fight. The jersey was there, but with no blood on it. Although Kleiss, 22, died of a stab wound to his lower heart, investigators found no knife. Witnesses said they saw Fuqua and Kleiss fighting, but nobody said they saw Fuqua stab Kleiss. Thousands of television viewers saw the aftermath, because a New York college student on Seventh Avenue with a video camera heard a scream and started taping. Last March 16, police released the tape to the media, seeking witnesses. It showed Kleiss looking at his bleeding left side, and Fuqua running away. Brock and the videotape emerged as the strongest evidence against Fuqua. But Public Defender Julianne Holt, in a rare week of hands-on trial work, hammered Friday at Brock's own troubles. As Fuqua was arrested in the murder in late March, he, Brock and another Lutz Boy were charged as co-defendants in a 3-month-old burglary. Two months later, Brock was charged with breaking a man's jaw at a Lutz McDonald's. Two months after that, he was charged with slashing two men at a keg party. On Monday, Holt is to present Fuqua's defense. The core is an account by a bouncer of the bar, who called 911 as Kleiss collapsed to describe a black man stabbing him. Fuqua is white. - Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com
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