The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 11

Florida Sentinel Star Orlando, Florida Wednesday, October 17, 1979 1 -cen sales tax in crease idea divides panel By LARRY UPMAN snti no SIM-TALLAHASSEE Florida residents would pay an extra penny sales tax in exchange for a drastic drop in school property taxes under a recommendation adopted Tuesday by the governor's Tax Reform Commission. Opponents of the plan immediately forecast its death in the Legislature. The bitterly divided commission argued for two days over alternative sales tax increase-property tax decrease plans before voting 14-7 for the school plan. But attacks by influential 'legislative-commission members and others seriously diluted the recommendation's support. A spokesman for Gov.

Bob Graham said the governor had not taken a position on any of the commission's recommendations. The increased sales tax proposal is the keystone of about 80 tax reform proposals which the commission recommended to Graham. Other reforms include: tax relief to renters; assessing property at less than full market value; taxation of alcohol based on price rather than quantity; and a spate of economic development tax incentives. Under the tax plan, all state-required school expenses would be borne by the additional 1 percent sales tax, but county school boards would have the option of levying a 2-mill tax for capital improvements and additional operating expenses. taxes.

But Mixson said his vote did not necessarily reflect Graham's thinking. "He's aware of the property tax concerns, and he's always been for -more state participation in education," Mixson said. Asked if the commission's recommendation will force Graham to propose some form of sales tax increase, Mixson replied: "Everyone voted for one or the other sales tax (pro- posal). I think that's more significant than the specific proposal." But even if Graham recommends a sales tax increase to the Legislature, strong opposition has al- Tax, Page 4-C Setting the 2-mill cap would require a constitutional amendment. A mill is equal to $1 tax on $1,000 assessed property value.

The additional 1 percent sales tax, raising the state levy from 4 cents to 5 cents on taxable items; would raise about $700 million approximately the same amount as required by the state for counties to raise in property taxes, said plan sponsor Rep. Barry Kutun, D-Miami Beach. Lt. Gov. Wayne Mixson, who heads the commission, joined in supporting the "sales tax hike-school tax cut" plan over a local option 1 percent sales tax proposal from Sen.

Edgar Dunn, D-Daytona Beach. Dunn's proposal would have used the funds to reduce city and county property taxes and municipal utility Coppoliino 'yr -V-Xv AMociated Prest AMociatw Jubilant Mary Coppolino greets husband Carl Tuesday after his release from prison after serving time for murder 'Noted robber flee prison Giles' threats alert Brevard Smoke bombs hide escape United Press International AVON PARK Carl Coppolino walked out of prison a free man Tuesday after 12 years behind bars and pledged to clear not only his name but that of Florida officials he says were hoodwinked by controversial medical testimony. Coppolino, nattily attired in a three-piece light green suit, was greeted with hugs by his wife Mary and his youngest daughter Lisa, 16. "This is take-Daddy-home day," Coppolino told Lisa. Coppolino was convicted of second-degree murder April 28, 1967, in the Aug.

28, 1965, death of his first wife Carmela at their posh home on Longboat Key near Sarasota and was sentenced to life in prison. He was granted a parole Sept. 26 by a 6-1 vote of the Florida Parole Commission. The 47-year-old Coppolino has maintained he is innocent in the death of his wife and was asked by reporters if he plans to seek a new trial to clear his name. "Absolutely," he "Not only my name, but the state's name.

They (state officials) were hoodwinked. I was the victim that spent the time. I will do whatever it takes to clear my name and that of the state." Coppolino, a former anesthesiologist, was accused of killing Carmela with a lethal injection of a muscle-relaxing drug. The key testimony against him was by two medical experts New York City medical examiner Dr. Milton Hel-pem and his chief toxicologist Dr.

Charles Umberger both of whom since have died. They testified they had discovered a way to trace the drug succin-ylcholine in a body and had found amounts of it in the brain and liver tissues of Carmela, whose body was exhumed after Coppolino's former mistress Marjorie Farber went to authorities with a story that Coppolino had killed her husband in New Jersey and then killed Carmela. Up to that time, scientists believed the drug broke down so rapidly that it was impossible to 'trace in a body. The testimony of Helpern and Umberger now is under attack by other doctors who contend the drug cannot be traced and hint that Helpern and Umberger perjured themselves. Helperri also had been a witness against Coppolino in New Jersey when he was acquitted of killing Mrs.

Farber's husband, retired Army Col. William Farber, a short time before the Florida trial. In an interview on the eve of his release from prison, Coppolino said he suspects Helpern may have committed similar perjury in providing medical testimony at other sensational trials. He would not be specific but said he would pursue the matter in the coming months. "I'm suggesting he was a megalomaniac," Coppolino said.

"There is a hint there has been a change of evidence in other sensational cases." Testimony at the trial showed Carmela's death was listed on the official death certificate as a heart attack by a doctor friend of Carl and Carmela, based upon information Carl provided. Monday, he said she died of something akin to "sudden infant death syndrome," which he described as a heart irregularity that often strikes down healthy, young people. "People die of it all the time," he said. Mary Coppolino, who married Carl six weeks after Carmela's death, has led the fight for his freedom. She was encompassed in a bear-hug embrace when he came through the gate.

Waiting with Mary and Lisa were his attorney J. Leonard Fleet and his wife and retired New York City detective Lt. Tom Cavanagh, who also has been at the forefront in the fight to clear Coppolino. "Great, great, great," were the first words Coppolino exclaimed after coming through the gate. "Gentlemen, I am overwhelmed," he told waiting reporters and photographers.

"I have been up since 3:30 this morning, as you can imagine, pacing the floor." As a condition of parole, Coppolino is prohibited from practicing medicine and he is going to go to work for Sims Crane Service in Tampa, one of the South's largest crane operating companies. "I've even got a hard hat for him in the car," Mary laughed as she awaited his release from the minimum security Avon Park Correctional Institution. She said she and Carl planned to spend a few days at a friend's house at Redington Beach, near St. Petersburg, before he starts his job. "I'm in a midlife career change," the.

smiling Coppolino quipped as he climbed into the back seat of a gray Cadillac with his wife and Cavanagh and pulled away from the prison for the last time with the Fleets and Lisa in the front seat. Lisa, a senior at King High School in Tampa, was only 4 years old when her mother died. As she waited for her father, she said she really didn't remember her mother. And, she said, she had absolute faith her father was innocent. "That's for sure," she said.

"If I didn't I wouldn't be here. I'm just waiting for him to come out. I'm going to get a father." By BLANTON McBRIDE SvnlirwISIar TITUSVILLE The escape of Bernard Eugene Giles, serving five life sentences for the murders of five young women in Brevard County in 1973, has triggered an alarm among individuals threatened by Giles when he was sentenced. Giles, with two other maximum security prisoners, escaped from the State Prison in Raiford Monday night. Aware of threats made by Giles, sheriffs homicide agents have, moved his former wife from her home in Titusville to an undisclosed location and will keep her under guard until Giles' recapture.

Reached at the home in north Brevard where deputies were keeping guard, Giles' former wife indicated she does not believe Giles would attempt to see his 5-year-old daughter. She refused to respond to further questions, repeating ohly, "I don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry." Mrs. Giles divorced Giles in 1974 and resumed using her maiden name for her By CHRISTOPHER EVANS SwiUntlSUr FLORIDA STATE PRISON AT RAIFORD Prison guards Tuesday sweated through the scrub-dotted, table-flat land near this sprawling prison, hunting a murderer and an armed robber who Monday bolted over the prison's walls under cover of jury-rigged smoke bombs. A third escapee was captured moments after the breakout, and late Tuesday a prison official indicated searchers were closing in on the remaining two escaped prisoners.

He said that while guards fired at least six shots at the escapees, none of the trio was believed hit. Bernard E. Giles, 26, of Citra, and Norman Edward Dean, 27, of Tampa, remained free late Tuesday. Tracking dogs and several units 'of the Florida Department of Corrections continued the search into the night. Giles, serving a life sentence for the murders of five Brevard County women in 1973 and 1974, was described by Bradford County Sheriff Dolph Reddish as "a noted killer." Dean, a laborer, was serving a 215-year sentence for a Hillsborough County armed robbery and several drug-related offenses.

Vernon Bradford, information officer for the state Department of Offender Rehabilitation; said Giles, Dean and David Edward Barlow, a 40-year-old murderer, "sawed out a steel window bar" and escaped Monday at about 8:25 p.m. He said the men, before scaling a 12-foot chain-link fence with rolled barb wire atop it and a similar 8-foot fence, threw handmade smoke bombs out a window to distract guards and to hide the escape. Barlow, also a laborer, was captured minutes later hiding behind bushes near the prison administration compound. Bradford said prison officials had not determined what the men used to cut through the bar. "It could have been something as small as a razor blade," he said, "Then it could have been a saw blade or a self-made device." Escape, Page 5-C Bernard Eugene Giles killed 5 women.

self and her 6-month-old daughter. She has since remarried, said Homicide Agent Wayne Porter. Homicide agents threatened by Giles during the investigation and subsequent trials include former Sheriffs Lt. W.J. "Buzz" Patterson, now an administrative assistant to State Attorney Douglas Cheshire; Sheriffs Department Capt.

S.R. "Speedy" DeWitt; and Agent Robert Schmader. DeWitt said he "would like to run across Giles," but added that Patterson was a rnore likely victim. "He really hated Buzz," DeWitt said. Patterson said he "wasn't going to lose any sleep over it" but said Giles, Page 5-C New breed of high rollers visiting You can always spot the Venezuelans at Miami Airport." Sargeant said at least 20,000 Venezuelans own property in Florida, and that figure may be as high as 80,000.

In the past six years Venezuela has prospered as skyrocketing world oil prices have swollen its oil income. The U.S. Travel Service has estimated that 17 percent of the Venezuelans who visit this country earn more than $25,000 a year and 30 percent earn between $15,000 and $25,000. Per capita income among the country's 13.5 million people is about $3,000. That's low in comparison to the $7,000 average In the United States, but-higher than other Latin neighbors.

And it is more than double Venezuela's per capita average of $1,300 a year in 1973 before oil prices surged. AuedaMPiMs MIAMI The big spenders leaving stacks of cash in Florida these days are from oil-rich territory but they're not Texans. Today's high rollers are from Venezuela. "It's quite wonderful," says Darla Carlton, owner of a chic downtown clothing shop. "The women come in and and $800 dresses while the menibuy 15 ties at $32 apiece." Tdurism officials estimate that Venezuelans now make up the second largest ijumber of foreigners after Canadians to visit Florida.

Last year an estimated 300,000 Venezuelan tourtsts visited the United States and about half of them came to Florida, according to Dade County tourism research director Art Ellick. They're a welcome sight to shop owners. "I've heard stories of Venezuelans hitting Lincoln Road (a Miami Beach shopping district) and spending $6,000 in an hour," said Ted Griffin, executive director of the Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority. "Venezuela is our most important Latin American market right now." Often visitors from Venezuela and other Latin countries combine a Walt Disney World visit with a shopping stop in Miami. Here they can pick up such comforts as television sets at half what they'd pay back home.

"Venezuelans go on huge buying sprees," said Bernard Sargeant, a U.S. embassy tourism official in Caracas. "They go with one bag and come back with five bags stuffed full of clothes, plus portable TVs, boxes and packages. Afg fcif 3 Venezuelans look at expensive dresses in Miami boutique..