Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 22

ill bgroM To) section TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1994 ST. PETERSBURG TIMES l'V -1 1 Voters make the big switch For a variety of reasons, they inundate elections offices to change party affiliations on the last day to register for the Sept. 8 primary. -4 Murder was plotted for months, police say Court documents show that Dr. Louis Davidson was targeted twice for murder, with his estranged wife leading the way.

By CRAIG PITTMAN Times Staff Writer LARGO Dr. Louis Davidson may have been a marked man six months before he was murdered Jan. 25 at his St. Petersburg apartment, according to documents released Monday by the Pinellas-Pasco state attorney's office. The boyfriend of the doctor's estranged wife, former swimsuit model Denise Davidson, hired a hitman to kill the doctor in July 1993, Mrs.

Davidson's Mr' 1. I 7 TV. 1 'V-i, Denise Davidson went through a bitter divorce. Photos by DAN McDUFFIE Paul Roberts stands by his pest control company car after it was hit by gunfire from fleeing bank robbery suspects at Azeele Street and MacDill Avenue. IRedl dye pack dtoyses tomik rolbbeiry aiUeinnipd: sister told police.

But before that hitman could carry out his contract, he himself was gunned down by police in Jamaica, Ava Davis told investigators. Ava Davis' statement was used by investigators to justify placing a wiretap on Mrs. Davidson's telephone just days after her husband was beaten, tied up and drowned in his own bathtub. Mrs. Davidson, 34, is one of three people who have been arrested in the doctor's murder.

Also jailed are Robert Roy Gordon, 31, a Miami man who police say was the hitman who killed Davidson; and Susan Carole Shore, 26, By CURTIS KRUEGER and MARTY ROSEN Times Staff Writer Watson Haynes considered running for the Pinellas County Commission as a Democrat. But instead of running, he'll be voting for a Republican. Haynes switched parties Monday, the last day to change before the Sept. 8 primary and Oct. 4 runoff.

He was among dozens who have changed parties in the past several days some wanting to vote for gubernatorial candidates of the opposite party, some interested in local campaigns outside their own party, and some changing for philosophical reasons. In Haynes' case, he wanted to vote in the GOP primary for Cecil Keene, who could become Pinellas County's first African-American commissioner. Haynes scratched the idea of running himself because he didn't think he had proper support from the county's top Democratic Party officials. So he decided to vote for Keene, a Republican who faces former St. Petersburg City Council member Robert Stewart in the GOP primary.

That meant changing parties. For Haynes, it was a little easier than most. He attended a luncheon where Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Dorothy Ruggles was present. She handled the paperwork. Hundreds of people went to elections offices Monday.

Not only was it the last day to change your registration, it was the last day to register for the primary. "We've just had constant people coming in and out all day," Ruggles said. "The phones have been ringing constantly." No one had calculated exactly how many people were switching parties, but Haynes clearly was not alone. Please see SWITCH 5B Confusion after the pack explodes leads to a car crash and the arrest of two teenagers. A third suspect is on the loose.

Dr. Louis Davidson was murdered Jan. 25. By PAUL DE LA GARZA Time Staff Writer one of Gordon's girlfriends, who police believe persuaded Davidson to open his door, and who then let in Gordon. Shore later told a friend she was to 4 Ty i over the counter and grabbed the cash.

When they left the bank, they headed north on MacDill. Near MacDill and Azeele Street, the dye pack exploded, spraying the suspects and the cash with red dye. As the robbers tried to make a right on Azeele, they struck a car driven by Christine Reynolds, 47, who was on her way home after playing tennis on Davis Islands. The driver, she said, was still wearing a white ski mask. Roberts, 42, of Riverview, was at that intersection with his wife, Sharon.

The owners of a pest control company, they were on their way to work. After the collision, which caused little damage to the vehicles, Roberts and Reynolds got out to see if everyone was okay. That's when the passenger in the front seat of the getaway car tried to run. "The guy in the back seat comes out with a steel-blue automatic," said Reynolds, a former Air Force officer. "He points it at me and (Roberts).

They pile in the car and head on down the street." As they were driving off, one shot was fired at Roberts. It struck his back rear tire and the gasoline tank. Authorities think Green was the shooter, Cole said. The suspects, all of whom have criminal records, didn't get very far before their car hit a puddle and stalled, Cole said. Mrs.

Roberts, 39, was shaken after the shooting. "I don't even know how to tell you. It was a total shock," she said. "You see somebody point a gun at your husband. You're in the vehicle that gets shot.

It's unreal." TAMPA Paul Roberts is no detective. But when he saw a pile of cash tainted with red dye inside the car that had just crashed Monday morning, he figured bank robbery. When one of the boys inside the car started to run away, Roberts grabbed him by his jacket. The boy's friend came to his defense with a handgun. "He tells me to get my silly a- back or he'll shoot me," Roberts said.

"That tells me the guys are serious." Roberts let go of the jacket, but the man still fired, striking Roberts' truck. Within minutes, Tampa police arrested two of the three suspects, but a third got away. The pair, Leon Wesley Brown and Kwane Audley Wilson, both 17, were charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle, aggravated assault and armed robbery. Police identified the third suspect as 20-year-old Emilio Green. According to Tampa police spokesman Steve Cole, the suspects, all from Tampa, entered the Sun Bank branch at 2002 Mac-Dill Ave.

about 10 a.m. Once Green fired a shot into the ceiling, Cole said, and one of the teens jumped I be paid $80,000, according to police. And tests of a rental car she drove that day have turned up what police believe could be blood stains on the seat covers, according to the documents released Monday. Gordon, Shore and Mrs. Davidson haye pleaded innocent.

5 Warrants have been issued for two other men: Meryl Stanley McDonald, 47, of Miami and Leonardo Cisneros, 32, of Jamaica. Neither has been captured yet, and the lead prosecutor on the case has said it could be a long time before either is taken into custody. Court records are unclear on what role police believe McDonald played in I Davidson's murder. But Cisneros has i been identified as Mrs. Davidson's boy-j friend and, according to Ava Davis, the 1 person who hired the first hitman, Police say Cisneros helped Mrs.

Da-i vidson wire money to Gordon, and gave Gordon a cellular telephone so they ntnir in f-l irh witVl him Chandler's daughter taped his comments In 1989 conversations, she says, murder suspect Oba Chandler asks for her silence because it "could mean his life." Dye-stained money rests in the road. It was taken from Sun Bank at 2002 MacDill Ave. I CUU1U Oiay 111 iuuv.ii nuu mm. Please see MURDER 5B TIMES DIGEST Colleton remorseful over shoving incident 1 i -if Associated Prest near Jacksonville was caught on camera and broadcast nationally. By CRAIG PITTMAN Times Staff Writer LARGO Oba Chandler's daughter secretly tape-recorded him asking her not to tell anyone he had confessed to "killing some women," according to her pre-trial testimony.

"He repeatedly told me that I didn't have to tell anyone these i ORLANDO Former U.S. Attorney Larry Colleton said his grabbing and shoving of a TV reporter was out of character for him and admits he should not have done it. "It's been embarrassing and humiliating," said Colleton, Colleton took a leave, during which the Justice Department investigated that incident and others involving his office. He was forced to resign 11 days ago and given anoth i things, Kns-tal Mays testified in a pretrial deposition July 26. She said at one point he offered her money to keep quiet.

In one taped conversation, she said, Chandler told her that if er job with Justice. Prior to the videotaped incident, Colleton said Rose was pressing him for a comment about a judge who criticized him for reassigning a veteran drug prosecutor. Colleton said he didn't wish to discuss it, but Rose persisted. "Even though there were people around me, I was the loneliest person in the world," Colleton said. "I was nervous.

I was un sitting in the living room of ihis suburban Orlando home. "I certainly don't want the few seconds of that videotape to define me. That's not Larry Colleton during 99.999 percent of the time." 1 Colleton, forced to resign five months after being tapped to head the vast Middle District of Florida, broke his silence for the first time in an interview Caller threatens to kill 20 priests in retaliation PENSACOLA Florida priests were warned to be careful and dress inconspicuously after a caller threatened to kill 20 clergymen in retaliation for the slayings of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard. The anonymous caller contacted a Roman Catholic Church in Miami on Thursday and warned, "Ten priests will die for every person that was killed in Pensacola," police said. The threat was passed on to the FBI and a task force on domestic terrorism, Metro-Dade police spokesman Denis Morales said Monday.

On Friday, a bomb squad from Eglin Air Force Base was sent to the home of anti-abortion activist Paul Hill after someone reported a suspicious package on the doorstep. The package turned out to be full of plastic baby dolls. All 110 Catholic parishes in the Miami area were warned of Thursday's death threat, said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. Churches in Pensacola also were warned, and Episcopal clergymen, who dress similarly to Catholic priests, were told to be careful. Dr.

John B. Britton, 69, and James H. Barrett, 74, were shot to death outside Ladies Center abortion clinic on July 29. Study: Coral reefs dying from excessive saltiness Some portions of Florida's necklace of coral reefs could disappear within 10 years due to the diversion of fresh water from the Everglades, a study says. The coral appears to be dying as the result of excessive saltiness in Florida Bay, at the tip of Florida, according to a University of Georgia ecologist.

But other scientists dispute the study. Story, 4B Oba Chandler is scheduled to go on trial Sept 12. Months later, Larry Colleton say he's embarrassed. comfortable. I was not at my emotional best.

I turned "Obviously, when around, my hand went up. I talk with she talked it "could mean his life." A copy of Mrs. Mays' deposition was filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court on Monday. So was a motion by Chandler's attorney to suppress the contents of the tape-recordings, which he said violated Chandler's constitutional rights. Chandler, a 47-year-old aluminum installer, is scheduled to go on trial Sept.

12 in the 1989 murders the Orlando Sentinel, published Monday. Colleton submitted his resignation to President Clinton and subsequently was named counsel to the head of the Justice Department's juvenile justice and delinquency program in Washington, D.C. He starts work Aug. 22. The former prosecutor's scuffle my hands and maybe nature took over.

I felt his presence in my space, no doubt about it. But I didn't grab this guy or choke this guy." Rose filed a misdemeanor battery complaint but dropped it after Colleton sent a one-paragraph apology nine days later. Times photo JOE WALLES RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS: Jasmine Evans of St. Petersburg waits at a Beach Drive bus stop during Monday's downpour that dropped up to V2 inches in some spots. Today's forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of thundershowers.

with WJKS-TV reporter Richard Please see CHANDLER 5B Rose on May 6 at a legal conference 'X..