ST. PETERSBURG -- A car flipped over, and an 18-wheeler jackknifed in separate crashes that brought traffic to a standstill Tuesday evening on northbound Interstate 275 in Pinellas County.

The interstate's northbound lanes were shut down at Exit 14, and vehicles were detoured onto 54th Avenue N. Rush hour traffic on I-275 backed up more than 3 three miles, all the way to downtown St. Petersburg.

A Nissan Altima overturned about 4:15 p.m. on I-275 near 62nd Avenue N. The Nissan's driver told state troopers that another car cut him off, and he veered to avoid crashing into it. The Nissan hit guardrails on both sides of the road and landed upside down. The driver wasn't badly hurt but was taken to Bayfront Medical Center as a precaution.

Farther south on I-275, near 22nd Avenue N, a semitrailer truck jackknifed in the road and blocked all but one northbound lane. That slowed traffic further.

Lewd conduct trial of convicted rapist starts

LARGO -- The trial of Oldsmar millionaire Gregory L. Wilbanks on a lewd and lascivious charge opened in Pinellas-Pasco circuit court on Tuesday.

Wilbanks, 45, is accused of persuading two 14-year-old girls to sit naked in his hot tub last year after they came to his house thinking they might be paid to clean up the place, prosecutor Mary Handsel said.

Handsel said Wilbanks, who also was unclothed, took pictures of the girls. The mother of one of the girls discovered the photos and called the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Defense attorney Denis de Vlaming told jurors that Wilbanks never asked the girls to undress and never entered the hot tub with them.

Wilbanks was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison earlier this month after his September conviction for raping a bank employee who testified that she went to his house for business only to be attacked by him.

Wilbanks faces up to 15 years in prison in the case, which is expected to be decided by jurors today.

Man gets 15-year term in fatal beating at bus stop

LARGO -- A man who participated in the beating death of a homeless man at a St. Petersburg bus stop last year was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday.

William E. Marr, 21, was sentenced by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Philip Federico six months after he pleaded no contest to a manslaughter charge in the August 1999 beating death of 51-year-old Don Regnier.

Marr's friend, Tony Rosa, 20, was convicted of second-degree murder last month and sentenced to life for his role in the attack.

The two men drove by Regnier as he was standing at a bus stop at the 4700 block of 28th Street N. The pair thought he gestured at them about their radio being too loud, police said. So the two men stopped and beat him into unconsciousness. Regnier soon died.

The men fled. But Marr later returned to the scene, where witnesses pointed him out to police.

Hillsborough School Board approves new elementary school

TAMPA -- The Hillsborough School Board approved a plan Tuesday to open a new elementary school at only 60 percent capacity, confident that northwest Hillsborough's booming development will fill it soon enough.

Yvonne Tomei McKitrick Elementary School, which is being built on Lutz-Lake Fern Road for 941 students, will open next August with as few as 560. Administrators originally proposed a zone containing about 685 students. But they relented when parents from two affected subdivisions, Van Dyke Farms and Canterbury, pleaded for their children to stay at Schwarzkopf Elementary.

School planners originally had hoped that the opening of McKitrick would drop Schwarzkopf's enrollment from the current 150 percent of capacity to 80 percent. But keeping the two subdivisions pegs its projected capacity next year at about 95 percent.

Son charged with torching home after a fight with his mother

TAMPA -- The mother and son who lived at 3311 W St. Louis St. in Tampa had not been getting along, officials said Tuesday.

The son, 19-year-old Eric Blanco, had been arrested three times in just two months on charges of grand theft, drug possession, grand theft motor vehicle and, most recently, domestic violence after officials said he hit his mother, 56-year-old Maria Blanco.

After another fight Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Blanco left to cool down, said Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade. Her son took his rage out on their house, authorities say.

"The fire marshal said he poured a flammable liquid throughout the house and set it on fire," Wade said. Then, Blanco walked to a convenience store down the street and called 911 to report the fire and to say he set it. Police arrested him at the store while firefighters extinguished the blaze at the house.

The fire caused $40,000 in damage and left the house uninhabitable, Wade said. Blanco is in jail, charged with first-degree arson.

Hernando schools pull $150,000 in purchases over budget fears

BROOKSVILLE -- Nearly $150,000 in purchases -- including $20,000 for a piano and its high-tech accessories -- were pulled off the Hernando County School Board's agenda Tuesday due to concern over looming questions about the school district's budget.

School Board Chairman Jim Malcolm said department heads in the district office voluntarily pulled the items during a staff meeting Tuesday morning. The purchases were due to go to the School Board on Tuesday night.

The pulled items included a $24,000 John Deere tractor for the plant operations department, an $18,000 multimedia computer for Central High and a $108,000 purchase of 92 computers.

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