Jurors can't agree on murder charge

Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 1999

TAMPA -- In a murder case with a most unusual weapon -- a 2-foot-tall statue of a brass elephant with its trunk raised high -- a jury deliberated more than six hours before deciding it could not reach a unanimous verdict Wednesday.

Investigators say Floyd Lamar Little died in August from a single blow to the head from someone wielding one of the two brass elephants Little kept in front of the TV in his north Tampa apartment.

Wednesday, a jury convicted Howard Alexander, 25, of stealing Little's four-door Honda and his cell phone. Though the jurors indicated the majority of them wanted to convict Alexander of second-degree murder, they ultimately could not reach a verdict.

No new trial date has been set.