A few days before 20-year-old Jennifer Lynn Thompson's death, Stephen Howard Look II had threatened to kill himself with a semiautomatic gun in a Largo hotel. Thompson, who was trying to break up with him, called for help.

When deputies arrived, they confiscated the gun and committed Look, 21, of 4407 74th St. N, to a Pinellas Park mental facility for a three-day evaluation. But Look scaled a fence the next morning and escaped. Three days later, he went to the Pinellas Sheriff's Office and asked for his gun back. Hours later, he shot Thompson to death in Tampa.

The events prompted a policy change at the Pinellas Sheriff's Office. Deputies now run a background check on anyone who wants to pick up a gun seized by the office.

That check was not required when Look appeared at the Sheriff's Office with his mother asking for its return.

Had deputies checked, they would have found Look was listed in a national database by Pinellas Park police as an endangered missing person who had been committed to Pinellas Emergency Mental Health Services for threatening suicide.

Caretaker accused of using patient's credit card

SEMINOLE -- A caregiver for a legally blind woman has been arrested on charges she stole the woman's credit card and charged $6,000 on it.

Linda Lee Grimm, 49, of 1201 Michigan Ave. N, Palm Harbor, was arrested Wednesday evening on charges of grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult.

Grimm is accused of taking the 73-year-old woman's credit card and using it about 12 times over a six-month period, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Initial report shows 2-year-old boy drowned

CLEARWATER -- Preliminary autopsy results show that a 2-year-old boy who investigators believe was killed by his mother was drowned in the bathtub, police said Friday.

Police said they think Carol Landry Medeiros, 34, drowned her son, Nicholas Landry, in a bathtub, then dressed him in a one-piece jumper suit and placed him in his crib.

Medeiros then tied a rope to the top of a bedroom door and hanged herself, police said. The pair were found Thursday morning by husband and father Joe Medeiros, 36, who had moved out of the family's apartment, 200 Starcrest Drive, on Monday because of marital problems.

Bush taps two Tampa lawyers to be judges

TAMPA -- Gov. Jeb Bush named two Tampa lawyers Friday to new judgeships created by the Legislature with extra funding this year.

Lamar Battles, 50, an assistant general counsel at the Florida Department of Transportation, will become a circuit judge. Paul Huey, 42, a partner in a Tampa law firm, will be a county judge.

Battles served as a judge advocate for the U.S. Army from 1980 to 1995. He also worked in special operations at MacDill Air Force Base before joining the state DOT as a lawyer in 1995. He attended the University of Florida law school on an Army scholarship and graduated in 1980. He earned his undergraduate degree from Florida Southern College in 1973.

Huey has worked at Bush, Ross, Gardner, Warren & Rudy for 14 years. He is certified as a specialist in complex business litigation. He graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1985, and the University of Florida in 1981.

Federal funds to benefit Wolf Branch Creek

TAMPA -- Environmental officials will use $500,000 in recently approved federal funding to plant native uplands vegetation around Wolf Branch Creek, a project administrator said Friday.

The money will come from a $142-million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program directed to coastal states. In Florida, the water management districts received about two-thirds of the money, or $11.1-million, several million of which are going to this region.

More than 200 acres of wetlands already have been restored at a cost of $3-million at Wolf Branch Creek, just south of Apollo Beach, said Mark Hammond, program manager for the state's Surface Water Improvement and Management Program.

Plans call for spending another $800,000, including the $500,000 federal share, to replant uplands after years of degradation from development and agricultural activity. The work could start as early as next June and should take 3 to 5 months to complete, he said.

Name theft added to woman's charges

TAMPA -- A woman arrested earlier this week on multiple charges of animal cruelty and improper care is now accused of giving investigators her daughter's name instead of her own.

Geneva Louise Edwards, 47, was arrested Tuesday after deputies found three dead greyhounds and another 43 dogs without food or water inside her mobile home at 1012 Keysville Road in Plant City.

Edwards initially identified herself as Cassie Marie Postlewait, age 30, who is actually her daughter, the Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Edwards was being held Friday at the Morgan Street jail on additional charges of theft of personal information, providing a false name to law enforcement and unauthorized use of a license or identification card.

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