The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 215

BREVARD The Orlando Sentinel .11..,. Pets from humane societies are aoina fast but fiinri-raisinn is cinuu a Wednesday, December 22, 1982 jt -j a 1 Lq; A J3 Estate Brevard Elderly woman probably knew her killer, police say By Alex Beasley OF THE SENTINEL STAFF theorize her killer might be someone she had helped in the past. So instead of an expected family gathering at his home in Minneapolis, Frank Rhame spent Monday and Tuesday at his mother's condominium going through her belongings to tell police whether the person who repeatedly stabbed his mother last Thursday also robbed her. Rhame and his brother Fred, who lives in Texas, arrived in Cocoa Beach on Monday. Mrs.

Rhame, of the Las Palmas condominiums at S4S Garfield Ave. in Cape Canaveral, was described by police as a wealthy and generous woman who often gave money to people down on their luck. Friends found her body Saturday after they became worried because she had not been seen since Thursday and had not picked up her newspapers. An autopsy report showed she was killed between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Thursday. The woman, whose eyesight was so poor that she could not drive after dark, could not have put up a struggle because her arthritic spine limited her mobility and kept her in constant pain, said Brevard County sheriffs investigator Jim Bolick. Police have turned up few clues to Mrs. Rhame's death. Her sons, after searching the condominium, could not account for her wallet or cash so police assume robbery was the motive.

They do not know how much money was taken, but friends said she usually conducted her business in cash. Investigators now have a reason for the killing but no suspect. What investigators thought was a solid lead in the slaying fizzled Monday when a man Bolick wanted to question about the killing turned up at a state mental hospital in Macclenny. Friends of the victim told Bolick Mrs. Rhame had once loaned the man, who was described as a "crazy" and a drifter, some money and that he had become a pest.

Bolick said Mrs. Rhame had become afraid of the man! But hospital officials told investigators the man had been at the institution since late November and was there when Mrs. Rhame was stabbed to death. Since there, was no sign of forced entry, police can only speculate the killer knew his victim. Mrs.

Rhame was "very Please see WOMAN, C-12 TITUSVILLE Thelma Rhame was in such poor health and in so much pain se rarely ventured outside her condominium. But Monday was to have been different. Monday friends were to drive the 66-year-old woman to the airport so she could spend Christmas with her son in Minneapolis. She never made it. She was killed Thursday and police Time-share taxation challenged Resort owners, buyers sue By Louis Trager OF THE SENTINEL STAFF 1 7 -T N--y Si 1 sj hi J-- -i'' i-r-mm Man stabs, robs woman driving cab She crawls half a mile after being left for dead By Bill Bond OF THE SENTINEL STAFF I I vl I Yds i-f Principals in a Lake Buena Vista time-sharing resort have filed suit in Orange County Circuit Court challenging its property-tax assessment, in what the county assessor said would be a "landmark case" on the taxation of such complexes statewide.

In a complaint filed Monday, the companies that own and manage Vistana Resort Vacation Vil-las and owners of time-share units at the resort said that the 1982 valuation by the office of Orange County Property Appraiser Ford S. Hausman ignored state assessment standards and violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. and Florida Constitutions by treating Vistana differently from similar property. The assessment amounted to a tax on the complex's gross business revenues, rather than a tax on property itself, the suit charged. "Sales prices include many items other than just land, buildings and improvements to the land which are subject to ad valorem taxation," the suit said.

Hausman said Tuesday that Vistana's assessment was based on a state law that takes effect next year because current law doesn't cover time-sharing. He said that under the new law "the value of the property as a whole is the sum of the value of the shares, less reasonable costs." Vistana's is the first case of its kind to go to court in Florida, Hausman said. "It's going to be a landmark case," he said. "It will establish once and for all the proper way to assess a time-share unit." "They haven't got a chance to win," he added. The plaintiffs VSTI Vistana Resort Management Inc.

and the Vistana Condominium Association Inc. estimated the value of Vistana's 60 units at just under $3.8 million. The assessment was more than $10 million, based on Please see VISTANA, C-12 LEESBURG After being stabbed repeatedly and left for dead, a 31-year-old woman taxi driver escaped from the trunk of her cab Tuesday and crawled about half a mile to a road where she was rescued. A hospital spokeswoman at Leesburg Regional Medical Center said Karen Spears Landers, a driver for City Cabs in Leesburg, was listed in stable condition after nearly three hours of surgery. She was stabbed in the face, neck, abdomen and hands.

A spokesman for the cab company said the robber took about 1 00 from the driver. Landers was found on the south shoulder of State Road 44 a fouth of a mile from the Interstate 75 interchange near Wildwood, where she waved down a Florida Power truck driver. Officials say the victim crawled through rugged Sumter County woods before reaching the highway. Mary Smith, dispatcher and co-owner of City Cabs, talked with Landers shortly before the woman was taken into surgery. Smith quoted the injured cab driver as saying, "Mary, it's a nightmare, it's a nightmare.

When am I going to wake up? He left me for dead, he left me for dead." "She said she was locked in the trunk but managed somehow to get out and crawl to the highway," Smith said. "She said she could hear me on the taxi's radio while she was locked in the back." As the victim was wheeled out of surgery shortly before 6 p.m., she recognized her grandmother, Lilly Webb, and clutched the elderly woman's hand. "She said, 'Granny, I'm all right. I'm all right, don't leave Webb recalled as she wiped away tears. The Sumter County Sheriffs Department's ground and air search of the area near Interstate 75 and S.R.

44 continued Tuesday night. Tracking dogs from the Sumter Correctional Institution and the Citrus County Sheriffs Department were pressed into the search shortly before noon. The orange and green taxi was found abandoned about half a mile south of S.R. Road 44 about 11 a.m. by Sumter deputy sheriffs.

Sumter County Sheriff Jamie Adams said there was blood on the steering column as if Spears may have tried to call her dispatcher. More blood was found on the back seat. Wrecks close 40-mile stretch of highway UNITEDPRESS iLfllc Clear a pileup of tractor" Palm Beach-Broward County line caused several iniur- othLr "JS that Smashed in, one an" ies but no deaths. The highway patrol (Stwt 10 other early Tuesday on fog-covered U.S. Highway 27.

vehicles were involved in the crash I 40-mile stretch of The stnng of accdents, which began just north of the highway was closed for 4 hours during the cleanup Judge rejects ex-mayor's plea agreement By Alex Beasley OF THE SENTINEL STAFF defense attorney Ed Kirkland. "He's got a record as long as from here to that door." Kirkland objected, telling the judge that his client had only two previous traffic violations and suggesting the judge might be looking at someone else's presentence investigation. When Kirkland asked to see a confidential report on his client by the state Department of Corrections, Cross later told the attorney and client to leave the courtroom. Littlejohn, 45, of 1003 River Road, Melbourne, now has the option of taking his case to trial before a new judge or trying to work out another plea with the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney's office. Outside the courtroom, Kirkland said he was flabbergasted.

"I'm very surprised. This was a complete surprise. I'm afraid if I commented further, I'd be held in contempt of court," he said. Littlejohn had admitted he stole property and cash last Christmas Eve from a boat docked in Eau Gallie, where he was a member of the house and finance committee of the Eau Gallie Yacht Club. Please see PLEA, C-12 TITUSVILLE Glenn Littlejohn, a former Indialantic mayor, city commissioner and prominent civic leader, got a shock Tuesday when a circuit judge refused to honor a prior plea agreement to give him probation on burglary and grand theft charges and then nearly threw his attorney out of the courtroom.

"I cannot accept the agreement of withholding adjudication (of guilt) and no jail time," Brevard County Circuit Judge Emory "Red" Cross boomed at Please see CAB, C-1 5 4 vs ffi Shooting victim must buy medicine instead of toys Judge to visit, decide if dogs are vicious By Lauren Ritchie By Jim Runnels OF THE SENTINEL STAFF I 4 medication, keeps Marcia from holding a job at all. She gets welfare funds, but the money from Aid to Families with Dependent Children is barely enough to feed her family. Marcia is trvine to obtain SnrUl OF THE SENTINEL STAFF MOUNT DORA The bullet that tore through her stomach two years ago also has shredded any hopes Marcla's six children might Security disability payments. If nave had for this Christmas. After medical expenses, food and rent, Marcia (not her real name) has little money left over for toys.

The shooting followed Marcia's attempt to make a better life for herself and her children. Police said her boyfriend sne succeeds, she will be eligible for Medicare. The money she receives from the various social agencies doesn't stretch far enough to include Christmas presents. Marcia's three boys and three girls range in age from 4 to 18. Mondav.

Marcia asked Sentinpl Santa INVERNESS A county judge who said he can spot a vicious dog has promised this week to visit two dogs accused of killing State Attorney Gordon Oldham's dachshund and to determine whether the canine pair can go home for the holidays. Citrus County Judge Leonard Damron also ordered at a Tuesday morning hearing that the dogs' owner, Lane Gibson, 34, of Leesburg undergo psychological examinations to determine whether she can withstand the stress of a trial. Her lawyer. Bob Williams, said Tuesday that he is considering appealing that order. The state will pay at least $600 for experts to examine Gibson, who if convicted faces a maximum penalty of Please see DOGS, C-1 5 PHOIOTOfly BOYD Peeking in on Santa Hunt for girl shirts Jennifer Marteliz, 7, of Tampa, who has been missing 38 days, may have been sighted in Orlando.

Police are on the lookout shot her in a fit of jealous rage after she went out and got a job. Marcia had to undergo extensive surgery which left her without most of her large intestine. Now she spends about $40 a month for the colostomy bags she needs to collect and dispose of her body wastes. The Colostomy, added to the complications from her required friend to take her and a propane gas bottle to a nearby business so that she could purchase enough gas to heat her house. Wide-eyed and curious, the younger children played in a yard littered with the broken remnants of cast-off toys.

The chill of an Please' see SANTA, C-1 4 Angelina Stanley. 4, and J.R. Werkes, 2, admire the Santa Claus display that their school. Wade Christian Academy, set up recently in the window at Vic Osman Lincoln Mercury in for the girl. Story, C-4..