Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 18

WultifiM Witmm fgiMmmmMMmmiJMMMssA hKlmw LOCAL NEWS INSIDE Commissioner criticizes tax collector for furniture purchase, 1 B. Police say 16-year-old driver of car in fatal accident was legally drunk, 1B. MORE LOCAL NEWS INSIDE II Prosecutors describe slaying suspect as jealous husband, 2B. Vicki Rios Martinez to appear on "60 Minutes" this weekend, 2B. SECTION FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 6B Griffin can't decide on lawyer AP Associated Press PENSACOLA The man accused of murdering an abortionist here is having trouble finding a defense lawyer because some are afraid of publicity and others are too interested in seeking it, a civil attorney assisting the search said Thursday.

Circuit Judge John Parnham indefinitely delayed a bond hearing and postponed Michael F. Griffin's trial from May 3 to June 21 after a courtroom discussion with the defendant and lawyers on the representation issue. Griffin is accused of shooting Dr. David Gunn, 47, outside a Pensacola clinic during a pro-life demonstration when the physi cian arrived for work March 10. Saying he planned to use the Bible as a legal document, Griffin initially asked to defend himself but later agreed to seek a private attorney.

When he appeared in court Thursday, Griffin still had not found one to his liking. Joe Scarborough, a lawyer working for Griffin's family, assured Parnham a diligent search was being made. "We haven't sent a stream of attorneys in that Mike said 'no, no, no' to," Scarborough been difficult, because a great number of them that we want to get involved in this case are concerned about the media and the volatility involved here, and just don't want to open that can of worms." Pensacola has been targeted for demonstrations by activists on both sides of the abortion issue and some have said they might use civil disobedience to try to shut down the city's two abortion clinics this summer. Scarborough later told reporters many criminal lawyers have offered their services, some for free. "We've had quite a few call us up and want the publicity.

Those aren't necessarily the ones we want," he said. Abortion ruling, 1 B. family's MICHAEL GRIFFIN, right, talks to Joe Scarborough, his lawyer, during a court hearing in Pensacola on Thursday. QBD tOUGlS 2 men charged Colling Prison crowding criticized x1 I 1 3f 111 a iA Le Encephalitis case reported in Broward FLORIDA TODAY Wires FORT LAUDERDALE A Broward County man has been diagnosed with encephalitis, and officials said Thursday it might be the first case of the deadly St. Louis strain since a 1990 outbreak killed eight people in Florida.

Paul Blackinton, 66, of Cooper City, was comatose and listed in serious but stable condition at Imperial Point Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, said Patty Kohler, a spokeswoman for the hospital. A preliminary test corroborated the encephalitis diagnosis, hospital spokeswoman Susan Cwirblis said. "He has encephalitis, but we are testing to see if he has the St. Louis strain," Cwirblis said. However, tests to confirm which strain Blackinton has will take at least another week.

Encephalitis is a disease usually contracted by a mosquito bite. Symptoms of the brain-swelling disease set in within five to 15 days after a bite. They include headache, fever, stiff neck and disorientation. In about 7 percent of the cases, the disease can be fatal. 3 firefighters charged with arson AVON PARK Three volunteer firefighters have been charged with torching five houses, a trailer and an empty building over the past 18 months because they wanted practice in battling flames.

According to authorities, the men would set the fires, wait until they were discovered and the alarm sounded, and respond to help put them out. The damage for all seven fires is estimated at $170,220. At least two of the fires were set in or near residential areas, and one was set near a golf course. In that case, a two-story house worth $95,000 was destroyed, arrest affidavits show. 33 more Haitians arrive in Miami MIAMI Thirty-three Haitians arrived here Thursday, the second group of refugees released from the U.S.

Navy base at Guantana-mo Bay, Cuba, after months in limbo there because of HIV infections. An Air Force C-130 transport landed at Miami International Airport Thursday morning with the Haitians, said Mario Ortiz, a spokesman with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. They will be processed by the Immigration Service and will be allowed to pursue asylum claims. It was the second group of Haitians flown to the United States since Federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr.

ruled March 26 in New York that the U.S. government has to provide proper medical treatment at Guantanamo, or send them to where they can get it. 2 boys find marijuana in gum LARGO Federal authorities were aiding in the investigation of how traces of marijuana got into a package of shredded grape bubble gum purchased by two boys at a neighborhood store. "My friend said, 'Yuck. This doesn't taste right.

It tastes 11-year-old David Thornberg said of Wednesday's discovery. "It tasted all right to me. But when I smelled it, it smelled like marijuana." Tests by Largo police showed 0.02 grams of marijuana were in the foil package of "Big League Chew," shredded bubble gum made to resemble chewing tobacco, a police spokesman said. Agriculture commissioner hurt TALLAHASSEE State Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford shattered a shoulder in a tumble from a roof and will miss Cabinet meetings for the next few weeks, aides say. Crawford fell from the second-story roof of his Central Florida home last weekend, said Michelle McLawhorn, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services spokeswoman.

Although he will not be able to attend Cabinet meetings in Tallahassee, he hopes to stay in touch by phone, she said. 1.3. fiC-l: 1 Associated Press MIAMI Police on Thursday charged two men with the killing of a German tourist in Miami and were thanked by her husband, who said: "We have seen the very worst and the very best of your community." The killing of the tourist April 2 set off an international outcry about a surge of violence against tourists in Florida, bringing Dade County police chiefs and mayors together Thursday to search for a way to break what one called "a state of siege." The death resulted in traveler's advisories from Germany and Great Britain this week. Seven foreign tourists, including three Germans, have been killed in Florida this tourist season. The victim's husband, Christian Jensen, thanked citizens who helped lead police to the suspects.

4 "These criminals would likely not be in jail today were it not for the help of concerned and caring citizens," he said. Anthony Williams, 18, and Leroy Rogers, 23, who were already in custody on unrelated robbery charges, were charged early Thursday with first-degree murder and strong-arm robbery in the woman's killing, Maj. John Brooks said. The men were ordered held without bond Thursday afternoon. "Both admitted being involved in the homicide, and being part of the strong-arm robbery," Brooks said.

Barbara Meller Jensen, 39, of Germany was killed after her rental car was bumped by another vehicle. When she got out to inspect the damage, she was beaten, robbed and run over by a car as her mother and two children, ages 6 and 2, watched. Police consistently have identified her as Barbara Jensen Meller, but the German consulate said her married name properly comes last Investigators said they had recovered the car used to run over the woman, but would release few details. However, The Miami Herald reported that Rogers and Wil- 1 i i Associated Press TALLAHASSEE The two young men charged in Miami with killing a German tourist might have been behind bars instead, if prisons were not so overcrowded, state legislators and prosecutors said Thursday. Anthony Williams, 18, and Leroy Rogers, 23, previously were convicted of serious felonies that could have brought them longer prison terms, said Sert.

Gary Siegel, R-Altamonte Springs. "They might have been sentenced to a longer period of time if we had more space," said Siegel, chairman of the Senate Corrections, Probation and Parole Committee. "We're losing the war. Some people might say we've already lost the war." Siegel and Gov. Lawton Chiles failed to persuade the Legislature to impose a 25-cents-a-pack cigarette-tax increase to build 21,000 more prison beds over five years.

Chiles plans a special session later this spring to try to revive the proposal, although lawmakers approved 7,000 more beds beginning next year. Florida convicts, on average, serve 22 percent of their sentences in state prisons. A system of early release credits is used to keep the prisons at court-ordered population levels. Exceptions are habitual offenders, those on death row, and most of those given mandatory sentences for violent crimes. Williams and Rogers, charged with first-degree murder and strong-arm robbery in the death of Barbara Meller Jensen never even made it to the state prison.

Another way to keep prison overcrowding down is through judicial sentencing guidelines, which can reduce the penalties for criminals based on their prior records and other variables. DICK MASTEN, assistant Miami Shores police tourism crime workshop Thursday morning at chief, presents tactics for addressing the esca- Miami City Hall. Dade County police dhiefs and lation of crimes aimed at tourists, during a mayors attended the meeting. officers be posted at car rental agencies to hand out safety pamphlets, undercover operations in affected neighborhoods be increased and rental cars in Dade County be equipped with a special protective film making it harder to break glass. "This is outrageous what's happening in South Florida," said Alan Penberg, a security manager for National Car Rental, at the crime conference.

"It has created almost a state of siege here." liams, jailed after Jensen's death for allegedly snatching a woman's purse, were linked to the case through fingerprints found on Jensen's rental car. The purse-snatching victim called detectives late Saturday to say she had found Jensen's identification in her purse, recovered by police when they arrested the two men, the newspaper said in today's editions. Both men have criminal records, police said. Williams was on probation for armed robbery, and Rogers' arrest sheet includes charges for battery on a police officer, incitement to riot and' cocaine possession. State attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she is reviewing the arrest records of both men.

"In the tourist robbery cases, we have a very good record of getting cases filed," she said. At the crime conference, local officials suggested that police Castor urges parents to turn off TV, have kids tune into books instead Teen in swap case wants to divorce birth parents V- national newspapers and encyclopedias, Students whose homes have terparts on material to read do better in math scores, math, according to the the Na- ranking in tional Assessment of Educational the bottom Progress, which studied 110 Flor- third of ida schools, states. About Florida students scored an 15 percent of average of 259 on mathematics the students proficiency, measured on a scale watch six or of 0-500. The national average more hours was 266. to a national "Clearlv.

manv students in CASTOR daily, compared Associated Press SARASOTA A 14-year-old girl who has been at the center of a bitter baby swap battle between two families for nearly five years says she wants to divorce her biological parents and end the tug of war. "She's adamant in wanting to do this. It's her decision," said Bob Mays, who raised Kimberly Mays from birth. "She says, 'Hey, I have a life too. Why is everybody going to the courtroom and making decisions about my life and nobody is asking Kimberly wants to sue for divorce from her birth parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, who have been fighting for visitation of her since learning in 1988 that she was By Keith Goldschmldt FLORIDA TODAY TALLAHASSEE Education Commissioner Betty Castor has a message for parents who want their children to do better in school: turn off the television and buy some magazines or books.

Florida students in grades four and eight watch more television and do worse in math than the national averages, according to a study released Thursday. While 26 percent of the state's fourth-graders watch six or more hours of television daily, that figure is not entirely accurate. About 47 percent of African American fourth-graders watch that much daily, compared to 24 percent for Hispanic students and 18 percent for white students. Nationally, 22 percent watch six hours or more. Eighth-graders watch less TV but still do worse than their FAMILY LIFE their biological daughter.

They had raised Arlena, a daughter born to Mays and his late wife Barbara. When Arlena died of a heart defect, the Twiggs learned through tissue tests she was not their biological child. Their search for their natural daughter led them to Kimberly. The eighth-grader was spurred to act by a book released in February called The Baby Swap Conspiracy" which implies the 1978 switch at a hospital in rural Wauchu-la was intentional. "The book has been the straw that broke the camel's back," Mays said Thursday.

"She's very upset. She's had it" Four Fantasy 5 tickets worth $185,950 each Associated Press Florida Lottery's Fantasy 5 game produced four first-place winners Wednesday night and each can collect $185,950.33. The Lottery Department on Thursday said in addition to the first-place winners, 680 people won $314 for picking 4-of-5, and 22,487 people won $5 for picking 3of-5. The winning numbers for Wednesday night were 5-15-16-23-29. Lottery results, 1B.

average of 13 percent About 31 percent of African American students, 17 percent of Hispanic students and 8 percent of white students watch that much. "They're watching entertainment programs that don't add anything to their intellectual curiosity," Castor said. "That's an unfortunate fact of life, but one that we have really got to try to do something about." She suggested filling the home with reading material books, Florida fail to meet or exceed the achievement levels that prescribe what students should know and should be able to do," the study said. "Educators and policymakers will need to look to many sources of information and opinion for explanations of these levels of performance." Castor also said she is looking forward the $55 million the Legislature approved for schools to buy computer technology. 2.