TAMPA -- When repairs on Terri Wilson's Ford Explorer Sport Track weren't completed Tuesday afternoon, she accepted the dealership's offer of a complimentary rental car.

She filled out the paperwork for the 2000 Ford Focus while still in the mechanic shop at Ernie Haire Ford on N Florida Avenue. But before she put the key in the ignition and drove away, she opened the glove compartment.

When she did, a pungent odor almost knocked her down.

"When she opened it, she just turned white," her husband, Andrew Wilson, said. "She just stared at the glove box and said, "Andrew, come here.' "

Inside, the Wilsons found a purple Crown Royal scotch bag filled with marijuana, rolling papers and two ceramic pipes with pot residue. They asked for a manager at Ernie Haire, who called Tampa police.

Police spokesman Joe Durkin said detectives are investigating to determine to whom the pot belonged. The Wilsons can't help but imagine what could have happened if Mrs. Wilson hadn't checked the car before she drove away.

For their trouble, the general manager at Ernie Haire Ford offered the Wilsons a free oil change the next time they come in. But because the manager never apologized, Wilson said, they won't be back.

The manager did not return a call Thursday afternoon.

Addict gets life term for murder

LARGO -- A man convicted of using a brick and blade to beat and stab two teenage acquaintances, killing one of them, was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge John Schaefer sentenced Elliot Ramos to life after a jury recommended the prison term rather than the death penalty.

The same jury convicted Ramos, 45, last month of first-degree murder for killing 19-year-old Antonio Bernard Bartley and of attempted first-degree murder for wounding 18-year-old Rahman Abdullah Smith during a drug-related robbery in August 1998.

Ramos' attorneys, Bjorn Brunvand, Richard Watts and Rob Love, said their client didn't deserve the death sentence for the killing.

Ramos tried to rob the two men in his home on Fifth Avenue N in St. Petersburg, according to St. Petersburg police. Ramos said the two men beat him up all the time. He denied beating them in order to commit a robbery, as prosecutors contended.

Defense attorneys suggested at trial that another man killed Bartley. Ramos admitted at trial that he had been a crack addict for 10 years. He said Bartley and Smith forced him to provide them with drug customers, which he said he did in exchange for crack.

Ramos will be sentenced on Nov. 27 on the attempted first-degree murder charge.

Two men face charges in shooting death

TAMPA -- Two men were charged Thursday in connection with the killing of an 18-year-old youth whose body was found a day earlier in Town 'N Country.

Deputies said the teenager was killed during a drug deal. His identity has not been released because relatives have not been notified.

Sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder said the killing occurred not in Town 'N Country but somewhere inside the city limits. On Wednesday about 1 a.m., Reder said, the teenager met 29-year-old Robert Emilio Medina of 5110 Marc Drive and 22-year-old Jesse Del Real of 8309 Royal Sand Court, both of Tampa. During a drug deal, Medina shot the teenager in the face, officials said.

Del Real acted as a lookout for Medina, Reder said. He also took some of the teenager's money and helped clean up the scene, he said. The two men then took the body to the dead end of Forrestvale Lane and partially hid it under some brush, Reder said.

Medina faces charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. Del Real faces charges of being an accessory to first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.

A nearby resident discovered the body later Wednesday while walking his dog.

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