Woman's '97 murder solved, say police

For crack money, a man killed a woman he thought of as a grandmother, authorities say after his indictment.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 27, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG -- Two summers ago, 87-year-old Annie Mae Stockton was beaten to death inside the little house where she'd lived peacefully for 35 years.

As candlelight vigils summoned her memory each June, the slaying went unpunished and unexplained. But detectives kept working to identify her killer.

On Thursday, they announced a break in the case. They say Stockton was murdered for crack money by a man who considered her a grandmother figure.

A Pinellas County grand jury listened to investigators' evidence and indicted Reginald Coleman, 31, on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder. He's also accused of beating Stockton's 70-year-old nephew, Willie Woodard, who had dropped by Stockton's house.

The motive?

"Reggie said it himself: Crack will make you do almost anything," said police Detective Cindra Leedy. "It's an amazing drug. It's horrible."

Coleman denies killing Stockton, though police say he acknowledges visiting her house at 1225 13th Ave. S that weekend. Coleman has been the main suspect all along. He has been in jail or prison on other charges since just after Stockton's death.

"It's not over yet," Leedy said. "We got an indictment, but we still have to go to trial."

Convicting Coleman of murder is another matter.

Asked what evidence links Coleman to the crime, Leedy responded: "Information about his actions that night, before and after the murder."

Detectives say they have interviewed -- over and over again -- virtually everyone who had contact with Coleman around the time of the killing on June 14, 1997. Police say Coleman suddenly came into a large sum of cash, which he spent on crack.

"Reggie came up early on as a suspect," Leedy said. "He was the only main suspect we ever focused on or ever had."

Investigators say Coleman has given conflicting accounts of that June weekend. They collected fingerprints and evidence from Stockton's house, but decline to say if any of it points to Coleman.

Annie Mae Stockton lived alone in her neat, green home. She passed her time sweeping the carport and pruning her flower bushes, often giving camellia bouquets to friends.

She was a retired housekeeper who had worked for decades for a family on St. Pete Beach. Her husband Ira, a mechanic, had died 15 years before. Her only child, a daughter, also had died.

Stockton was a diabetic and had trouble walking, so every few days her nephew, Willie Woodard, would drop by with groceries. Her door was unlocked that June 14 when Woodard walked in and was hit from behind. He doesn't remember anything else.

Woodard's son found him and Stockton the next morning. Woodard had a fractured skull and awoke in the hospital weeks later to learn his aunt was dead.

Police say Coleman grew up in a house behind Stockton's and thought of her as a grandmother. He stayed in touch with her after his family moved away.

Investigators say Coleman admits a crack addiction.

At the time of Stockton's death, Coleman was wanted by police. He has told detectives he came back to St. Petersburg that weekend to turn himself in. He went to see Stockton.

"He says he did stop and pay a visit, but that he didn't kill her," Leedy said. "He says that when he left the house, she was fine."

Detectives see it differently.

"Something obviously went very wrong in the house. He ended up brutally beating her," Leedy said. "I don't know if that was his original intent, but it was his intent when he got in the house."

The house was ransacked, and Woodard's wallet emptied.

Coleman turned himself in three days later on unrelated charges of burglary and cocaine possession. He was later convicted and is serving 15 years in prison.

Now Stockton's relatives are crossing their fingers. "I just hope they have the right person," said Helen Woodard.

The 13th Street Heights neighborhood was disturbed by the brutality and senselessness of Stockton's murder.

Like Reginald Coleman, Emmett Brown grew up near Stockton's house and knew her through his boyhood. She'd tell him to stop playing in the street. She'd give him change to run an errand.

After she was beaten to death, Brown, 36, moved back in with his mother, who was living alone.

"There were very inspirational people in this neighborhood," Brown said. "I learned a lot from them, growing up. She was a good lady, Miss Annie Stockton."

-- Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Detective Cindra Leedy at 893-7613.

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