News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 8

2B Fort Myers News-Press, Friday, August 4, 1978 Dateline: Quiles denies shooting family Southvcst Florida Mi By FRANCES D. WILLIAMS Newt-Press Staff Writer A 42-year-old Milwaukee, man at his trial Thursday tearfully denied shooting his wife, daughter and mother-in-law. Luis Quiles is charged with three counts of attempted murder, robbery, burglary and con- spiracy in the October 1977 holdup at a home on Winkler Road. According to court records, on Oct. 7, four persons three masked men and one person witnesses said was a man disguised as a woman and wearing a dress and a wig burst into the home of Julia and Epifano Rodriguez.

Carmen Quiles and her daughter Delia, 16, wife and daughter of the defendant, also were in the home that evening. The intruders tied the family up and then one the four shot Mrs. Rodriguez, Mrs. Quiles and Delia. All three recovered after hospitalization.

Four admitted accomplices including one person who was driving the getaway car, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges of robbery or conspiracy and have testified as prosecution witnesses. Quiles took the stand in his own defense Thursday afternoon. Openly wiping tears from his eyes, Quiles said he loved his wife and daughter and denied being in Florida the night of the crime. "I took the day off from my work because I was sick," Quiles said when questioned by Assistant State Attorney Ralph Elver. "Later that afternoon, I drove from Milwaukee to Chicago for a Jehovah Witness meeting." Quiles said a relative phoned his Milwaukee home with the news of the shooting and he learned about it the next morning after he drove back to Milwaukee.

"I was sick when I found out," Quiles said. "I had to go to the doctor." "You were too sick to go to work but you were able to get in your car and drive to Chicago for a meeting?" Elver asked Quiles. "Yes," Quiles replied. The four accomplices have testified that Quiles flew to Fort Myers from Milwaukee, drove to the Rodriguez home, shot his wife, daughter and mother-in-law and then flew back to Milwaukee later that evening or early the next morning. Quiles, a slightly balding father of five, sat with his head down most of the day rarely even glancing at the parade of witnesses going in and out of the courtroom.

Quiles is represented by Gerald P. Boyle, a Milwaukee attorney. Circuit Judge Wallace Pack recessed court shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday and ordered the jury to return at 8:45 a.m. today for closing arguments.

The case is expected to go to the jury today. ECC predicts largest class in history 200 new students expected to enroll over last year's final total of 3,800, the student population may exceed 4,000 for the first time. The added students may put a strain on the school for the first time, according to Clark. "We're running out of classrooms," he said. The overcrowding won't last long when the new $2.3 million Humanities Building is completed.

Construction of the classroom-office-media complex began this week. The building is expected to be completed in 1979. Students will be able to enroll for the first time with the help of a tration after classes begin. The office will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Fridays. A special drop-add period for pre-registered students will continue each Friday until the start of class, according to guidance and counseling director Ellen Peterson. The special period allows students to change their schedule by dropping or adding classes. Normally, students must wait until the week prior to the beginning of classes, but the college is trying the new time on an experimental basis to determine of it provides greater efficiency, according to Mrs. Peterson.

By LARRY MEYER News-Press Staff Writer The largest class in the 17-year Ihistory of Edison Community College is expected to enroll for the fall term, Admissions Director Dean Clark said Thursday. However, the 4,000 students who Twill enroll in credit classes at the 'school may find themselves in a bit of a classroom squeeze, Clark said. Fall term classes begin Aug. 24 at the Fort Myers main campus and at the centers in Charlotte and Collier counties. Clark said the school uses a five "percent annual growth rate to predict its enrollment.

With nearly computer registration system, Clark said. In addition, the courses will be numbered according to the standardized course cataloging system adopted this year across the state. The numbering system gives the same name and ranking to all courses in Florida's community colleges and universities. The system will help do away with problems students encountered in the past in school transfers. The school's Office of Admissions and Records on the first floor of Building will be open from 9 a.m.

to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays until the close of regis Cape woman steps up Formosa fund drive Capt Coral Bureau A Cape Coral woman who never has met Mike Formosa, a young concrete worker who needs a bone marrow transplant, raised more than $500 Thursday to help pay Formosa's medical bills. Aline Cooper, of 5253 Wisteria Court, collected donations in the lobby of the Cape Coral Bank and Trust, where she hopes to raise $2,000 today, she said. Bank policy prohibits people from soliciting inside the building, but Mrs. Cooper said the management permitted her to set up a booth and explain why Formosa needs money.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Cooper had 250 signs printed to promote the fund drive and started placing them in Cape storefronts. Formosa, 22, flew to a bone clinic in Los Angeles on Wednesday and is awaiting an expensive marrow transplant from his older brother. Doctors at the University of Florida hospital in Gainesville esij-mate the transplant will cost lit least $60,000. Formosa, who has a wife and a small child, does not hold medical insurance.

An admissions official at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center said the hospital would probably not perform the transplant without a commitment of payment for services. Persons wishing to contribute to Formosa's fund may make deposits at any local branch of the Barnett Banks, the Ellis Bank of Fort Myers, Cape Coral Bank and Trust or the National Bank of Cape Coral. Explorer cited for patrol car mishap A Boy Scout Explorer doing volunteer work for the Fort Myers Police Department was cited Thursday for improper backing after he drove a city police car into a palm tree, according to the police department. Police said they cited Mike Paine, 19, of 193 Crescent Lake Drive in North Fort Myers, after he backed into a tree on the corner of Ricardo Avenue and Nelson Street while attempting to turn the vehicle around. Police said Paine had been routinely cruising that area as part of his regular volunteer work.

Police said the city is insured "for all persons" who drive law enforcement agency cars and that the vehicle Paine was driving received only minor damage. Explorers are high school-aged youths who volunteer services to area business or agencies. "It is a shame that we had to cite someone who was donating his own personal time to the city," one department spokesman said. "But it's the law." Fan stolen from home under construction Cape Coral Bureau North Fort Myers electrician Darrell Wright is having trouble pointing to his work in a Cape Coral home that was under construction when he installed a fan there several months ago. Wright told Cape Coral police that he returned to the home this week to discover that the bathroom ceiling where he had installed the heat lamp-exhaust fan was completely covered with plaster.

Wright said he removed the ceiling plaster at the home at 3506 SE First Place and found that the fan had vanished. Wires leading to the fixture had been cut, as had other wires throughout the house, police said. Wright believes the fan, valued at about $50, was stolen between the time he installed it and when the plasterer arrived 11 days later. Agencies dispute who will pay library bill By BARBARA JOHNSON News-Press Staff Writer An impasse was reached Thursday on the question of which governmental agency will foot an un-budgeted $130,000 bill on the new $1 million Lee County-Fort Myers library. City councilmen and Lee County commissioners learned about two weeks ago that there would not be enough money after construction bills to buy furniture for the library being built on property by the old Seaboard Coast Line station.

In a special meeting Thursday, City Councilman Jerome Daniels recommended that Lee County buy the furniture because the city had donated the land for the library. County Administrator Lavon Wisher said she believed the two government bodies should split the unexpected cost as they have all other expenses for the library. Both the county and the city have donated $400,000 toward the new public facility and a $200,000 state library grant was additionally contributed by the county. Mrs. Wisher said they agreed to contact several service organizations to see if a fund-raising drive, such as a telethon, would be a feasible solution.

City Clerk Maynard Martz said the shortfall in the construction budget was due to a last-minute decision to make the library larger than originally planned. Matz said furniture, landscaping and other items for the expansion were not included in the architect's cost estimate. Another $36,000 unexpected expense early in the project was the removal of about two and a half acres of concrete, some of it about four feet deep, on the site on which a cement factory had at one time been located. "You have to take into consideration more than the floor space (in determining a cost estimate) and that wasn't done. The mistake was made when it was accepted (by the city council and county commission).

It should have been sent back to the architect for a revision to include furniture and things," Matz said. "I don't think you could put the finger on someone to say it was their fault. It was just organized confusion," Matz said. Matz called the $126,000 estimate for furniture a "bare bones" figure which had been pared from Fort Myers Librarian Lillian Shreve's initial $200,000 request. He said the money would buy furniture, shelves, some video equipment and facilities for the handicapped and blind.

Mrs. Wisher said the county had no money this year to pay even half the cost of furnishings and that it would have to be considered in next year's budget. No injuries result in three-car wreck A North Fort Myers man was cited for careless driving after a three-car accident on the Caloosahatchee Bridge Thursday evening involving a Lee County Sheriff's Department undercover agent's vehicle, according to the Fort Myers Police Department. Police said they cited Martin Strickland, 30, of 873 Landslide Road, who was traveling north and struck the rear of a car driven by Mary Wilkinson, 22, of 2580 First St. Miss Wilkinson's car in turn struck the rear of a vehicle driven by an undercover agent whose name wasn't released.

Police said there were no injuries in the accident shortly after 8 p.m. and damage was minor. Rape of 1 5-year-old by intruder reported Lee County sheriff's agents are looking for a man who a 15-year-old girl said sexually assaulted her at her parents' home on Biscayne Drive Thursday afternoon, according the sheriff's department. Sheriff's deputies said the girl told them the man broke a sliding glass window and entered her parents' house, forcing her at knifepoint into a sexual act. She told deputies the man broke into the house at about 12:30 p.m., shortly after her mother left to visit a neighbor.

The girl described the assailant as bearded, in his late 20s or early 30s and wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. State promises to prove Boyd guilty By MARK STEPHENS Collier Bureau Chief NAPLES A prosecutor told jurors Thursday that John Darrell Boyd is guilty of smuggling Colombian marijuana into Glades County in 1976, even though he was not present when the drug was landed at a grass air strip and transferred to two waiting vehicles. In his opening statement before a four-man, two-woman jury, Assistant State Attorney Bob Dennis promised to prove that Boyd and his younger brother Tracey took part in the planning and financing of the smuggling scheme. Dennis also said John Darrell Boyd, 34, went to Colombia, procured the drugs and served as ground contact in that South American country for an operation that was infiltrated from the beginning by two government informers. "The plan could not have worked without the participation of John Darrell Boyd," Dennis said, "even though he was not there when the load came in physically." I John is the first of the brothers to go on trial in Naples on charges stemming from the incident.

Tracey Boyd, 30, is scheduled to go on trial as soon as the first case is disposed of. Wednesday, John Boyd's attorney William Moran answered Dennis' charges before a jury that took two and a half days to select, telling them that, according to depositions taken from prosecution witnesses, only one had been willing to say he met with Boyd concerning the drug haul. That witness, Vernon Jones, was the Informer who tipped off the state attorney's office about the plan. Moran said Jones didn't make the claim about Boyd's involvement until Monday, the day the trial was to start. "The evidence will show he was falsifying," Moran told jurors.

Moran said Ralph Cunningham, chief investigator, had admitted during pretrial depositions that Jones had not previously implicated Boyd in the planning sessions. He said Cunningham had also testified that he had no knowledge of anyone who knew of Boyd's alleged role in the Colombia arrangements for the 1976 smuggling trip. Security remained heavy inside and outside the courtroom in the case which has already drawn heavy publicity. Circuit Judge Harold S. Smith, who moved the case from Glades County to Naples for security reasons, sealed the courtroom Thursday, permitting spectators to leave when they wanted, but allowing people to enter only during recesses.

The judge told reporters the procedure was only partly for security. He said foot traffic in the courtroom distracts jurors "even when I'm talking to them." Dennis said the chain of events that led to the landing of a twin-engine plane on the Glades landing strip on Sept. 2, 1976, began when Jones received a call from William Hoerchel, whom Dennis described as "a major drug smuggler." Unaware that Jones was an informer for Cunningham, Hoerchel asked him to arrange for a pilot and plane to bring marijuana from Colombia to Florida. Agreeing tentatively to do his part, Jones, according to Dennis, then called Cunningham and was told to "follow it up." The prosecution says after Jones told Hoerchel that the deal was on, a series of meetings followed over a two to three month period before September, some attended by the Boyd brothers. The result of those meetings was an arrangement, according to Dennis, under which the Boyds and Hoerchel would provide financing, and Jones would provide the aircraft and pilot, as well as a secure airstrip at which to land the plane in Florida.

Hoerchel and Jones, according to Dennis, were assigned the job of finding men and vehicles for unloading the marijuana. John Darrell Boyd was to go to Colombia to arrange for a marijuana cargo, while Tracey was to accompany the plane on both legs of its journey, Dennis said. Testimony is scheduled to resume today at 9 a.m. Loss of seeing eye dog costs man independence Manuel Osorio lost his independence Thursday. Blind for seven years, Osorio for the past three years had been guided by Joshua, a golden Labrador retreiver.

Thursday afternoon, as he was being walked by Osorio's wife, Joshua ran away. Kay Osorio, 57, of 1569 Manchester said she was walking Joshua near the Tanglewood Elementary School when he apparently saw another four-legged creature and ran away. "He (Joshua) is well behaved and is a thoughtful, kind, intelligent dog," Mrs. Osorio said. "My husband is heartbroken without him." Mrs.

Osorio said her 57-year-old husband will have difficulty moving around without the help of Joshua. She said her husband has been blind seven years and for the last three years "Joshua has helped make Manuel an independent man. The two are the best of friends. "The reason I took the dog for a walk is because Manuel didn't feel well and now he feels even worse," Mrs Osorio said. Joshua wears a tag saying he is a "Leader Dog." Mrs.

Osorio said she and her husband moved to Fort Myers less than two weeks ago from Grosseile, partially for health reasons. She said Osorio and Joshua went through training together in a Seeing Eye dog school in Rochester, and have been close ever since. "We need Joshua. We love him." Substitute teachers needed at schools Lee County's schools need a few good subs substitute teachers, that is. The school board's personnel services department is beginning the annual registration of substitute teachers to replace absent regulars.

Anyone interested in being a substitute needs at least 60 semester hours of college credit and a Florida teaching certificate. Substitutes are required to have on file with the personnel department a completed teaching application, a completed certificate and a current health examination report. First-time substitutes should apply in person at the personnel department of the Central Services Building, 2055 Central in Fort Myers. Experienced substitutes should renew their applications by phoning the department at 334-1102. Two men sought in store robbery Lee County sheriff's agents said they are seeking two men who robbed the Alva Shop Go market on State Road 80 early Thursday evening.

Agents said the suspects headed on foot toward Charleston Park. One of the suspects was described as black, about 5-foot-10 with a blue shirt and plaited hair. The other man was described as a black, about 5-foot-8 with a short Afro and wearing Levis and a white shirt with blue sleeves. Agents said the amount of money taken in the robbery wasn't immediately determined, and no further details were released early today. Sexual assault of child charged A Fort Myers man was charged Thursday evening with the sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl, according to the Fort Myers Police Department.

Police said they arrested Walter Burkamp, of 2431 Second after receiving a telephone call from an unidentified man who said he saw a man sexually assaulting a small child. Burkamp was being held in the Lee County Jail late Thursday night in lieu of $10,000 bail. Campaigners! Smothers has drawn almost all of his Southwest Florida funds from Lee County, Including the Lehigh which put Its money on Eckerd In the GOP primary and also donated $200 to Democrat Williams. The company contributed to Smothers ond executive Harry Powell donated $250, the same as given to Eckerd. Unlike Eckerd's small donation funding-raising tactic, all ot Smothers' Southwest Florida money came In contributions ot $125 or more, although none as high as $1,000.

Realtor John Gradv and lawyer Charles Edwards of Fort Myers each contributed $500, Fort Myers lawyer Charles Blaelow, $575, and Fort Myers auto dealer vai wara aonaiea Those contributing $250 each, all from Fort Henry Caldwell, William Barnwell and A. Dean Castillo, self-emploved Robert Rockwell, builders. Lawrence Povla and Frank Hemelgarn and retiree Gateley Daniel. Fort Myers Beach: Realtor James Newton. Cape Coral: Banker David Gomer.

Sanlbel: Architect Mark Freeman. Immokalee: Housewife S.F. Roberts. Naples: Realtor Clayton Zehner. Southwest Florldlans, particularly In Charlotte County, were among the most generous supporters ot Kirk while he was trying to get on the ballot as an Independent.

He raised fully one-third of his $40,541 contribution total, Including $33,968 raised and spent as an Independent, In Southwest Florida. Punta Gorda developer Alfred Johns and his wife Mary Anne were Kirk's malor contributors In the tour-countv Each donated $3,000, the legal limit, while Harper Brothers, a Fort Myers construction firm, contributed $1,000. Others who donated $100 or more to Kirk are: $500: and Contracting developers Robert Barber and W. Warren Wonkelman, accountant Russell Barber, salesmen Wallace Hlnshaw Jr. and Oscar Llnder, builder Goff, financial vice president Theodore Aughey ond retiree Wallace Hlnshaw of Punta Gorda; dentist Dr.

John Douglas, of Port Charlotte. $400: Federal Insurance Agency Inc. ot Punta Gorda. $200: Punto Gorda customer relations director Edson Foster. $100: Gator Utilities Service Inc.

and banker James McFadden of Fort Myers; North Fort Myers banker R.W. Sherman; salesmen A.S. Pontlcos, William Graham Jr. and David Sigal of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte developer Thomas Hencher. Contributors of $100 or more to other Democrats since Jan.

1, are: Shevln: $500: Port Charlotte hospital official Robert O. Bruce. $331: Naples lawyer George Vega. $100: Collier Tiger Organization (teachers' union), architect. Arthur Renfroe and lawyer J.

Edward Ferguson of Naples; U.S. Sugar Corp. of Clewiston. Graham: $1,500: Bonita Springs Realtor B.F. Luckey.

$478: West Coast Insulation executive Maurice Plumber xf Fort Myers. $300: Former Myers Mayor Oscar Corbln (his wife, Wllhelmlno, contributed on additional $100). $200: Sanlbel restaurant owner John Kontinos and Bonita Springs Realtor Richard $100: Fort Myers Mosaulto Control Director J.T. Cowart, contractor Irving Giddes, Willla Mae Glddes (no occupation listed), auto dealership manager Jack Friday, South Marine Supply lawyers Hal Adams, Frank Watson and T. Rankin Terry of Fort Myers, and self-employed businessmon and City Councilman Porter Goss of Sanlbel.

Williams: $1,100: Immokalee cattleman and citrus grower W.D. Roberts. $550: Naples retiree Nan Edwards. $511: Punta Gorda lawyer G. Guy Batsel.

$342: U.S. Sugar Corp. ot Clewiston. $300: LoBelle agrlbusinessman J.R. Soratt.

$200: The Lehigh Naples physician Dr. William Barrett Jr. and Fort Myers contractor Alva Hill, $100: Florida Financial Corp. (securities and insurance), Realtor Arthur Homel, government employee Edwin Rich, self-employed J.S. Barton, housewife Mary Randell, Beacon Donegan Manor ot Fort Myers; North Fort Myers dental hygenlst Anne Truax; retiree Lillian Miller and developer E.R.

Felton of LoBelle; Collier County Tax Collector A. P. Ayers of Noples; farmer Glenn Thomas and ranchers Joe A. Hilllord ond Joe M. Hllliord of Clewiston; Immokalee merchont Alon Miners ond the Charlotte County Mobile Home Association.

Myers, are lawyer Michael Moreland, dentist Or. R. t. Hendry and Realtors Heard Edwards and William Reynolds. North Fort Myers contractor Joseph Pulte donated $200 and Fort Myers lawyer Richard Winsesett, $225.

Contributors of $125 each, listed according to hometown, are: Fort Myers: Accountant Marvin Metheny, physician Dr. Tom Gore, dentist Dr. Peter Plsarls, merchant James Williams, Floreda Inc. (developer), Gil-vesv Construction air conditioning contractor Ronald Smith, citrus dealer George Austin, restaurant owner Kenneth Beattie, lawyers John Hartman, Arthur Knudsen, E. Bruce Strayhorn, Patrick Ger-aghty, Craig Mitchell, A.

John Hughes, William Grace, Rlchord David Orosz, Wilbur Smith and Steven Carta, citrus grower Morlorle Berry, developer David Jassy, Realtors Daniel Adams, Robert Bass, Thorpe Fussell and Richard Prltchett Insurance agents Larry Webb, Leon Smith and John Nelsori, bankers Edward Denman, C.C. Coghlll Correction The last name of an investigator with the state attorney's office has been misspelled recently by the News-Press. The correct spelling is John Stachkowski..